Patrik Baboumian Quotes

Rape is the most humiliating thing that can be done to you; it's the most vulnerable that you can be. But once I realized that, I became a stronger person and faced all my fears.

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.

It is hard work to be good when you are very little and very hungry, and have many sticks to beat you, and no mother's lips to kiss you.

The terrorists thought they would change my aims and stop my ambitions, but nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage were born.

I have been through two wars in my 24 years, and I know what it's like to be without anything, to see the bombs flying above your head.

It was just you had to be strong, and if you weren't strong you're a victim and you're not going to make it. That was the reality when I was growing up.

Ultimately what I end up writing about is helplessness and the flipside of that, empowerment.

When you lose a parent at ten years old, the world seems like a much scarier place. It makes complete sense to me that I took survival courses when I was a teenager and started going to war zones as a reporter. I didn't ever want to be taken advantage of, and I wanted to be able to take care of those around me.

If I had to say something to Americans, being afraid and having fear, it's okay to be fearful because that will make you strong; being afraid will shut you down.

More than a victim, I am a survivor of a dehumanization process.

In a kidnapping, you leave behind a lot of your baggage, like arrogance and stubbornness.

I don't fear no man. I've had everything done to me.

When you're the good guy in a horror film, you're usually suffering a lot throughout the entire thing.

I've had friends who have experienced pretty horrible things, some pretty brutal things, and survived. And I know that they and I would never want them to be without the ability to defend themselves.

They did not submit to the obvious alternative, which was simply to close the eyes and fall. So easy, really. Go limp and tumble to the ground and let the muscles unwind and not speak and not budge until your buddies picked you up and lifted you into the chopper that would roar and dip its nose and carry you off to the world. A mere matter of falling, yet no one ever fell. It was not courage, exactly; the object was not valor. Rather, they were too frightened to be cowards.

One Child's courage to survive.

Even if I had expected it, even if I had known what I was going to do with my life, it would have knocked the wind out of me. When something that violent hits you, you can't help but lose your balance and fall. And after you pick yourself up, you realize you can't trust anybody to save you- not your husband, not your mother, not God. So what can you do to stop yourself from tilting and falling all over again?

If life is so critical, if Anne Frank could die, if my friend could die, children were as vulnerable as adults, and that gave me a secret purpose to my work, to make them live. Because I wanted to live. I wanted to grow up.

If you lived through the shooting of Jaws, you can live through anything.

I have learned to love that which is meant to harm me, so that I can stand in the way of those who are less strong. I can take the bullets for those who aren't able to.

What we have most to fear is failure of the heart.

My mother had no end of tragedy in her life. She would make herself get up and take a deep breath and go out and do laundry. Hang up sheets.

It was a matter of survival for the local people, but it was the most violent scene I have ever witnessed. The people in my group, feeling helpless, were all spellbound and aghast at the same time. I became a vegetarian shortly after that.

Ofttimes the test of courage becomes rather to live than to die.

I'm going to beat this cancer or die trying.