Ari Graynor Quotes

I discovered that acting gave me this spark, this thing. Honestly, it was a way to survive.

You will find that you survive humiliation. And that's an experience of incalculable value.

Part of my therapy is to write.

Acting's not therapy, but it can be therapeutic.

People think my work is therapeutic. I don't see it that way. It's not like I'm saving money from a weekly therapy visit by writing down my life.

By the time I got to songwriting, I had been faced with a lot of troubles as a result of my own collective of trauma. I was someone who instinctively figured out that writing songs about the struggle helps you with the struggle.

I grew up in a sad, depressed place. I got out. Poetry saved my life.

I went into acting as psychotherapy, and it's still a work in progress.

Creativity is what helps me escape a lot of my inner demons.

My music started as a way to break through weaknesses - like anxiety, which was completely taking over my whole life, where I could barely function.

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.

Acting can be an amazingly cathartic thing - especially for young girls.

I need both music and acting to even think about surviving life. I don't have a choice.

My writing always came out of a very personal place, out of an attempt to stay sane.

It sounds cheesy, but music has saved me in a lot of ways. If I had just continued acting, I don't think I would be alive.

Don't let your wounds make you become someone you're not.

My own path towards wellness has been a long and dynamic one. It's taught me that healing from the inside out takes time and there can be great value in various sources of guidance.

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.

I started cooking out of middle school depression.

You feel different every day of your life. You just have to create your own space to survive, personally and professionally.

The major tragedies in life, there's just no compensation. But the minor ones you can always write about. It's my way of dealing, and it's a heck of a lot cheaper than psychiatrists. The story, you see, will get you through.

I thought I'd use music to confront the problems that I faced, and it helped. I found a more healing mindset, and it did rejuvenate me.

My parents' divorce left me with a lot of sadness and pain and acting, and especially humour, was my way of dealing with all that.

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

I think writing really helps you heal yourself. I think if you write long enough, you will be a healthy person. That is, if you write what you need to write, as opposed to what will make money, or what will make fame.