Wallace Stegner Quotes

Because nobody goes through life without a scar.

I think scars are like battle wounds - beautiful, in a way. They show what you've been through and how strong you are for coming out of it.

I have a different kind of experience than other girls had. I've had to face a lot of different styles and adjust to them. I had to face a lot of bad situations and come back. I've had to fight with my eyes swollen shut and my nose broken and bloody.

I speak to people who have been through so much more.

I've lived through a lifetime of crises and survived.

People who come up through life or literature the hard way must inevitably carry their scars with them into composition.

I had to fight; I had to fall, and I had to get hurt to be where I am.

I've dealt with a lot in my life.

Scars are the price you pay for success.

Not everybody's journey is easy, and it wouldn't be worthwhile if you can't see what you gained without realizing what kind of battles you've been through, what kind of scars you have.

Half of us is easy, the other half is hard. Even though we do our best, we end up being scarred.

It is by those who have suffered that the world has been advanced.

With, or despite our scars, we stay alive.

Life will hit you hard in the face, wait for you to get back up just so it can kick you in the stomach. But getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.

That is how I came to think that heavy and hard was the beginning of living, real living; and though I might not end up with a mark on my cheek, I had no doubt that I would end up with a mark somewhere.

Life was brutal and it made victims of everyone.’ (Nykyrian)

The life of man is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain, towards a goal that few can hope to reach, and where none may tarry long.

Born down in a dead man's town, The first kick I took was when I hit the ground, You end up like a dog that's been beat too much, Till you spend half your life just covering up...

Each step is more difficult than the last; the heaviness fills me and turns my limbs to stone. You must hurt or be hurt.

All my brothers, my brothers-in-law, they're always telling me what a good-hearted guy I am. You don't get to be good-hearted by accident. You get kicked around long enough, you get to be a real professor of pain.

I've been through a lot of struggles, even though I'm young.

It's not life or death, the labyrinth. Suffering. Doing wrong and having wrong things happen to you.

Let the blood and the bruises define your legacy.

My life would never contain a convenient, pain-saving plan when it could stretch a problem out into an endless agony of uncertainty and torture.

Growing up, my family was an enemy of the state. I have experienced more disappointment than joy, much more sad stories or desperate conditions.