Tarana Burke Quotes

'Me Too' became the way to succinctly and powerfully connect with other people and give people permission to start their journey to heal.

I have learned to become not an M.D. but a 'C.D.' for the wounded people I meet. Yes, a 'Chosen Dad' who may not like their behavior but loves and reparents them and helps them to heal their lives and find self-worth and self-esteem and save their lives.

I can't just expect people to know what to say. I have to make them see me as more than my illness.

I still deal with triggers and neuroses that I've developed over the decades. But I do think I have a great amount of compassion for people who feel that they don't fit in, or people who feel they have trouble finding their place in this world.

Part of the healing process is sharing with other people who care.

When you come from so many damaged places you don't ever want to spiral back there, so you gotta continue to check yourself.

Empathy is the starting point for creating a community and taking action. It's the impetus for creating change.

I'd like to give people the hope and help I didn't have and that I had to learn by myself.

I'm trying to stay focused - trying to open up again - and the music really did a lot of greatness for me and meeting a lot of people that really had concern and compassion for me.

I didn't start Me Too as a hashtag, and had I had the opportunity to, I probably wouldn't have done it that way. I think that what has happened subsequently has been beautiful to watch, but what concerns me is what all of these survivors are going to do now.

I talk about a lot of issues I go through and some of my fans go through and try to create a fellowship where people can relate to each other.

A lot of people want to go out there, help people, and save the world. Sadly, half the time they can't even help themselves.

The more we reach out and become vulnerable and share our stories, the more people we will meet that will unite and help us to achieve more equality.

I have a lot of experience - not just with my 'Me Too' campaign but with survivors disclosing. I know that there is a wave of emotions that happens after that.

Everyone deals with trauma differently, and recovery is always a work in progress. But courage is contagious, and the more that people stand up and speak out against misogyny, the faster we can create the kind of world where we won't have to.

The pain and the suffering that I went through made me an activist. It made me stronger; it made me more compassionate.

I know how hard it is to live your life with your wounds exposed to heal other people

In my early professional years I was asking the question: How can I treat, or cure, or change this person? Now I would phrase the question in this way: How can I provide a relationship which this person may use for his own personal growth?

I want to have an impact because I don't want anybody to have to go through what I went through.

But my activities have been pretty much focused in the last almost 30 years on the recovery, of my own recovery, the understanding for my family of my recovery.

People love to be listened to and represented, and they love it when they feel like you have some of the same problems that they do. Everybody deals with things like romantic difficulties in relationships and death and cancer and abuse.

Oprah's stock in trade has always been her powerful unmediated connection. She could feel your pain and empower you to talk about it.

My goal is to teach readers how to treat and respect themselves and each other in an entertaining way. I do that in all of my books.

I have to say, I'm still surprised anyone's nice to me, that anyone talks to me. But I think people understand that other people go through things. We're all a bit gonzo, and you're allowed to take a little time to get your head on straight.

You have to remind people of their own struggles. It's a responsibility.