Avi Quotes

Even as a child, even as my blood-past was drained from me, I understood that if I were strong enough to accept it, I was being offered a second history.

When you have a traumatic event in your life, you change. You're not the same person you were, and you have to discover who you've become.

You know, Motorcycle Diaries has no incredible stories, no sudden plot twists, it doesn't play that way. It's about recognizing that instance of change and embracing it.

Man looks in the abyss, there's nothing staring back at him. At that moment, man finds his character. And that is what keeps him out of the abyss.

Things happen in my physical body, in my relationships. I've buried three fathers and a mother. I've had a doctor tell me I've got a tumor in my brain. And when you face those situations, they transform you, they change you, and when you're able to break through them to a new level, they allow you to have gifts to give other people.

It will feel impossible; like you are dying inside this is your soul crying out for life. It may take everything you have; every ounce of will and strength. You will lose a part of yourself trying to save something essential and innocent. And when you have given everything, you will recover and you will be set free, and you will discover there was even more in you than you ever knew.

Maybe she couldn't know who she was today. Maybe it was enough to know that she was no longer who she was before.

Losing my mother at such an early age is the scar of my soul. But I feel like it ultimately made me into the person I am today; I understand the journey of life. I had to go through what I did to be here.

I think life goes through a cycle of losing and refinding yourself all the time. Everyone has disappointments all the time, some of them pretty small, some of them pretty big.

You have to die a few times before you can really live.

I was the walrus, but now I am John. And so my friends, you'll just have to carry on. The dream is over.

The mythic journey is always about selflessness.

The ugly duckling is a misunderstood universal myth. It's not about turning into a blonde Barbie doll or becoming what you dream of being; it's about self-revelation, becoming who you are.

To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.

I'm still me even after all that's happened.

I had to find the courage to turn my life around.

What happened to me in Somalia doesn't define me.

There's so many things that people do on a daily basis that they do as a way of defining who they are. But really, what defines who you are is when circumstances push you to the edge.

My books are about losers, about people who've lost their way and are engaged in a search.

I would say my whole first record, 'Steady On,' had a lot to do with healing.

Before, boxing was something that I did. Now, boxing is who I am.

I would have to say Kelly Clarkson's 'Because of You' would be the song I would associate with coming out. It's really emotive, and personally, it reminds me of my father.

I faced a certain amount of violence. It taught me that I had to learn to protect myself - and it made me stronger. It could have made me step backwards with my self-discovery. Instead, it pushed me further.

Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.

without my wounds, who was I? My scars were my face, my past was my life.