Maurizio Cattelan Quotes

As you wrestle with life... You're going to come out on the other end healed... I've fallen short sometimes, and I've risen pretty high a few times.

I thought my story was over. But that was when I realised I finally had a story to tell - and it seems to remind people of their own story.

We're not always in the position that we want to be at. We're constantly growing, we're constantly making mistakes, we're constantly trying to express ourselves and trying to actualize our dreams.

It's very weird to succeed at thirty-nine years old and realize that in the midst of your failure, you were slowly building the life that you wanted anyway.

After the years of me trying to figure out what I wanted to do with myself, I knew I had to go back and fix some things. I can't just be super-rich or whatever and not do the right thing.

I think most people struggle over a matter of years to find a satisfying way to live.

Growing up, I looked to people who had the same issues as me and were still living great lives.

Life experience is not something to be denied, but to be celebrated.

You have to go through those mountains and valleys - because that's what life is: soul growth.

I went from just a regular nappy-headed kid in poverty to Amar'e Stoudemire, New York Knicks captain superstar. But there's a lot in between that allowed me to get from point A to point B.

The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering.

Most projects that I've done are really not about the project. They're about what's going on inside and around, that journey that we're all on, and what I can do to help that journey further itself and be of encouragement to somebody.

I've been the teenage success, I've been homeless and driving around in my car and not knowing where to eat. You just want to keep working and learning, and I was doing that. If I hadn't done 'Wild Bill,' I'm sure I would have acted in something else.

Many have changed so much that they have lost the magic of the dream that carried them on their own bootstraps.

I used to think that divorce meant failure, but now I see it more as a step along the path of self-realization and growth.

Everyone is told to go to high school and get good grades and go to college and get good grades and then get a job and then get a better job. There's no one really telling a story about how they totally blew it, and they figured it out.

If I could write a letter to my teenage self, I'd probably say something like: 'You ain't gonna believe what will become of you.'

I love failure. It's stuff that I'm thinking about all the time in my life, so it would make sense to me anyway to write about it.

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.

I have been shaped by my mistakes and disappointments - just as I have been shaped by my successes.

There are no makeovers in my books. The ugly duckling does not become a beautiful swan. She becomes a confident duck able to take charge of her own life and problems.

I first thought about becoming a writer after the age of 30, which is rather late, I'd say. In my 20s, I wasn't especially good at anything, and I didn't have a lot of experiences. I was just a young woman without a good job.

Books have the power to be the light we are seeking at crucial moments in our lives. Reading helps us realize we are not alone, that we can change our circumstances and even achieve the impossible.

You don't have to be a brain surgeon to be a valuable person. You become valuable because of the knowledge that you have. And that doesn't mean you won't fail sometimes. The important thing is to keep trying.

I didn't have nothin' going for me... school, home... until I found something I loved, which was music, and that changed everything.