John Darnielle Quotes

I've had to deal with my tragedies, and how you cope with them is what life's all about. You can choose to let them consume you or choose not to.

The hardest things in my life have made me who I am.

I went through big things at too young of an age, but, naturally, when you're young you're also adventurous.

If you let tragedies stop you along the way, then you're never going to grow as a person.

Of course we all break and we all cry and stumble. It's whether you allow the negative experiences to define you or shape you and make you become who you are in the best possible way. You use them as tools.

Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.

Sometimes life has a way of putting us on our backs to force us to look up.

I think it's an amazing quality to be able to roll with the punches and not be totally ruined as a person because life's been rough for you. That's a really admirable way to go through your life.

Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.

After becoming deaf, I realized that I'd better get an education if I was ever to do anything with my life.

From a certain age, I sort of accepted myself for what I was. And although to other people it was like nothing ever goes right, I had a really nice attitude that I'd inherited from my parents, and especially from my dad.

If your life gets off to a rough start, just know this is helping you develop depth of personality and depth of character.

The best people I know have had a lot of obstacles to overcome.

I'm not this callous clown walking around laughing at life all the time. I've had some serious, serious problems in my life. But I've come out with a smile.

In my life I had no other choice than to become a strong person.

Life does throw some hard stuff at you as you get older, much harder. But you are more able to deal with things.

My heart has been stolen too - but I've gone and got it back every single time!

I really believe I'm no different from anyone else. I just had a few challenges I had to learn from at a very early age.

If it were not for the bad things that've happened to me, I wouldn't be the person I am today.

How you recover from what life's throwing at you is what matters.

I'm pretty easily overwhelmed and pretty tough as well. I think I'm tougher than I used to be. There's been a lot of hardship along the way. But that's what life is. And it's how you deal with those things, and how you let them shape you that makes you a better person and defines what sort of person you're going to be.

As a writer, I have this compulsion to take characters who appear formidable and bombard them with adversity until they crumble. What's interesting is watching them rise again, and seeing how they've changed and grown, if indeed they have.

You're not fully you until life has booted you in the behind.

Life delivered me a catastrophe, but I found a richness of soul.

I've experienced many hardships, but mentally, I've always been older, and that reflects in my actions, too.