Carrie Vaughn Quotes

Military brats have this toughness: they're almost like orphans or foster children; they develop little mechanisms. It sets you up to look at things a little differently.

When I was growing up, I was obviously gay, and I got heckled every day of my life. The only way I knew how to survive was to make people laugh. If I could make them laugh, I wouldn't get hung in a locker for two hours. That's a blessing.

My dad was in the army so we moved around a lot and I changed schools every year and had to make new friends, and I found that if I was the funny guy I could do that easier.

I lived just outside of L.A. for a long time. My dad was in the military, so I moved a lot.

My father was military, so I traveled a lot, so I had 13 to 15 first days in new schools. Bullies transcend culture, unfortunately, and I had to deal with them wherever I went. I knew how to defend myself. But I didn't know how to fight.

I moved all the time as part of a military family, and I just really did not have very many friends. I remember having these feelings of walking into a room and feeling that nobody likes me, or thinking, 'I'm going to have to sit alone at lunch again.'

You know, I've been hit with a Greb boot in the face and I've been spat on. And my kids light up when they hear these stories. It really takes their minds off their troubles.

I went to 13 schools in 12 years. We moved all over the place. Music was the only thing that I could get behind... I wasn't that good at socializing. I'm still not.

I'm so proud to be an Army brat, but it was not an easy life. Moving around so much, skating was that one constant thing I had to hold on to.

I grew up in a military family. I was moved around from school to school, so people aren't always the most welcoming to new girls in school.

I was in a military family, so by the time I was 13 I'd lived in six different places.

Every other year, I was the new boy. I found that the only way to survive was to embrace it, make a little fortress on the outside and to pretend to blend in but not to invest too much because you'll be somewhere else next year.

I think it comes from far away inside me, to be strong to survive everything that comes my way. I think, going back to the beginning, feeling like an alien in an English school when I was eight, that set up my pride very early on. I think I'm very defensive, but I'm trying not to be like that anymore.

I was bullied as a boy - lots of kids are, but hopefully most of us get on with our lives and grow up.

I'm a Navy brat. You find that a lot of stage actors are Army or Navy brats, because they have the ability to make a big impression, make friends, and then leave just a few months later.

Grunts on the line, where the enemy wants them dead, still goof off - even knowing that by letting their guard down they might die.

I don't have any friends from my childhood because I didn't stay at one school for very long.

I have a theory because I was being beaten up a lot by people outside of school, it was almost like if I could make myself sick enough they'd take sympathy on me.

I was called 'Dumbo,' like the elephant, as a child because I couldn't understand things at school.

I had a very dysfunctional family, and a very hard childhood. So I made a world out of words. And it was my salvation.

I grew up everywhere because my dad was in the Navy. I had to adapt to each environment.

I was always very small, so growing up, I was always getting kicked around. It was something I kind of grew up with.

I honed my craft in the military, because it's the only thing that got me through it, to be honest. Working on music - being able to come home and work on music whenever I got off - was essential. If I didn't have that, I probably would've lost my mind.

Don't call me crazy.I'm a survivor. I do what I have to do to survive.

My whole life is about forgetting. It's my most valuable job skill.