Jewell Parker Rhodes Quotes

I do not want any child in America to have my childhood because it was taken away from me because I just wasn't good enough; well I am good enough now.

Part of my evolution has been to learn how painful most people's childhoods are. They grow up not liking themselves, not loving themselves. Ask people if they were lovable the minute they were born, and watch them sit back and have to think about it. One lady said, 'I suppose so.' That's painful.

In school, I was the quietest girl ever! I had a lot of trouble in school. Kids were mean to me.

Many people make fun of me because I'm always so dressed up, but they don't understand that there's a little girl inside me who always wanted to be that dressed up but never got to do that because I was always a certain weight.

I always remember responding very emotionally to film. I had a lot of lonely time on my hands because I wasn't really the best-looking kid in my town and I sort of pined after girls. I had to sort of immerse myself in the arts because girls weren't particularly interested in me.

I have been a depressed kid. I wanted to lead a quiet life, never wanted to be an actor.

I was very insecure growing up, and even though I'm not that girl anymore, I think that the passion, that not feeling pretty and being insecure, is where my soul came from. And from early childhood, I let it free onstage.

As a kid, I spent a lot of my mental energy hiding who I was and attempting to fit in.

When I was growing up, I didn't feel strong. I felt weak. I felt like a scared little kid. So I naturally turned to books to deal with that feeling, and I really turned to fantasy. That's really what influenced my decision to write a fantasy novel.

Growing up, I was the awkward, chubby kid. I had a few close friends, but I was the first one to be bullied.

I definitely spent a lot of high school isolating myself because I didn't feel like I fit in. I learned how to be funny.

As a little boy, I never felt comfortable with being human.

I've always known exactly who I am, but growing up has always been a struggle. I've even been called an 'it.'

I don't feel very good about myself. People always leave me. Nobody can stand me for very long. I wish I could cut my tongue out, or take out the part of my brain that has opinions. Or cares. I wish I could be simple. Be quiet, introverted, or shy. I'm half way in between a wallflower at a party and Elvis Presley. People love one or the other. In between is no place to be.

Do they choose to be so dense? Were they born that way? I have no friends. I have nothing. I say nothing. I am nothing.

Self-esteem and identity are very fragile things. I think a lot of times, those are the motivations for why people do take their own lives - not being seen, not being recognized, not being loved, not feeling supported, not feeling understood.

I spent my childhood alone, overweight and ugly, angry at everything, and knowing nothing of a life beyond this sadness.

I am not loved. I am not a beautiful soul. I am not a good-natured, giving person. I am not anybody's savior.

I've had so many insecurities, and am still getting over a lot.

I'll never be happy. I believe I'll die alone. I would want it that way. I've been a loner all my life with my secrets and my pain. I'm really lost, but I'm trying to find myself. I'm really a sad, pathetic case. My whole life has been a waste. I've been a failure. I just want to escape.

I write to be the characters that I am not.

I was never no, never no, never enough, But I can try, I can try to toughen up.

The wounded child inside many females is a girl who was taught from early childhood on that she must become something other than herself, deny her true feelings, in order to attract and please others.

My therapist told me I need to learn to love myself. It sounds easy enough, but really, how do you just wake up one day and learn that? It feels like something you should just do involuntarily, like swallowing or blinking, but now I have to work on it. It feels so forced. I mean, I know I went to a good school, and people tell me I'm smart and creative, but I don't KNOW that. I don't know how to make myself feel that.

I leapt eagerly into books. The characters’ lives were so much more interesting than the lonely heartbeat of my own.