Edwidge Danticat Quotes

Life's most underrated emotion is self-pity.

Never feel this bad again. Never come back to this place, where only a knife will do. Live a gentle and kind life. Don't do things that make you want to hurt yourself.

Who’s gonna make you happy when you’re your own worst enemy?

Somebody once told me that self-punishment is worse than any other punishment.

Self-love seems so often unrequited.

Comparison is an act of violence against the self.

I don't get along much with myself.

You gotta love yourself, because when you're hurting - you never know who's gonna be around to do the lovin' for ya. You gotta love yourself through the pain.

In the antiseptic world we try to purge ourselves of difficult things. Don't dwell on it, switch off the light and go home. But this is home. I have to be a home to myself. I am the place I come back to and I can't keep hiding difficult things in trunks. Soon the house will be full of trunks and I perched on top of them with the phone saying, "Yes, I'm fine, of course, I'm fine, everything's fine." The trunks shudder.

Self-love and the love of the world constitute hell.

I never hurt nobody but myself and that's nobody's business but my own.

I think it's safe to say that each of us has at least one issue we are passionate about and struggle with, issues that robs us of our peace, our joy and our ability to experience love.

In order to heal others, we first need to heal ourselves. And to heal ourselves, we need to know how to deal with ourselves.

For me, when I go to bed at night, I am happy that I haven't hurt someone. And if I think I have, I will rectify it. I now refuse to give someone permission to make me feel bad about myself. They can't make me feel bad about myself if I don't allow it.

Depression is a surfeit of empathy - a killing empathy - that makes depressives great friends to everyone but themselves. Having a self is a rough business, and depressives can empathize with others who have to deal with it, but not with themselves.

It's the love you have for yourself that's most important.

Sadness is a super important thing not to be ashamed about but to include in our lives. One of the bigger problems with sadness or depression is there's so much shame around it. If you have it you're a failure. You are felt as being very unattractive.

Our pain is a part of who we authentically are.

Self-loathing doesn't keep me from being happy. But that doesn't mean I don't struggle.

Your body loves you, but if you do not love your life, it will end it far sooner, thinking it is doing you a favor.

I'm no expert. I have no psychic powers, and I sure don't possess any secret wisdom. I'm just Janet. I have strengths, weaknesses, fears, happiness, sadness. I experience joy and I experience pain. I'm highly emotional. I'm very vulnerable.

Guilt can stop us from taking healthy care of ourselves.

I was so self-critical. I still am, but it's not as bad anymore.

Everybody feels good in their skin for about a minute a day, and the rest of the day, you're just trying to navigate your way through the sea of terror.

I have no desire to look at myself.