Michael Korda Quotes

I spent much of my life hiding.

Nothing makes us so lonely as our secrets.

We all came from houses with doors, doors that were supposed to be closed when there were things going on that we weren't supposed to see, and when our pants were down.

You're only as sick as your secrets.

If you really kill, you don't want to talk about it.

If you are going to try and hide something, sooner or later people are going to find out.

My mother, whom I love dearly, has continually revised my life story within the context of a complicated family history that includes more than the usual share of divorce, step-children, dysfunction, and obfuscation. I've spent most of my adult life attempting to deconstruct that history and separate fact from fiction.

I've been hiding crucial events in my life since I was 13.

Two women? God, man. Well, I'm still living. So clearly I must've gotten away with it, when I did do it. But I don't think it's time to blow my cover now.

My father's violence is the central fact of my art and my life.

There is a theme that runs through my work, and that is: the toxic property of keeping secrets.

Nothing is burdensome as a secret.

You rarely hear women crying in Grozney. They have cried their eyes out long ago.

Nothing weighs on us so heavily as a secret.

I knew I was born at the North but hoped nobody would find it out. I looked upon the misfortune as something so shrouded by time and distance that maybe nobody remembered it.

I was adopted without the benefit of papers. They used to hide adoption in the forties; I don't know why. Perhaps it was shameful. I could have been kidnapped - there are all kinds of crazy things that people have done - but I got over dealing with that a long time ago.

We all know about secrets - to have that pressure of something you can't reveal. That's universal: 'Am I safe? Am I gonna be OK? Will my family still love and respect me?'

There are secrets in families. That is the definition of a family.

I have survivor's remorse.

As a man, if you lose your wife, it's a horrible experience, especially with kids. But when one person passes away and you're still alive, people still depend on you - that's what you have to lean on.

When my parents were arrested, I was a year old. And like so many children with incarcerated parents, I experienced a range of traumas connected to the separation. I was angry. I was ashamed. I had developmental delays, behavioral problems.

Most people don't go around talking about their miscarriages. It's not really something you shout about. What's more, people often feel embarrassed or even guilty about them.

I don't have shame around where I've been or what I've done to survive to get to where I'm at in my life. When you don't have shame around something, it can't hurt you.

When we do something we're not proud of, a lot of people don't want to look at that, people may say "what people don't know won't hurt them."

Secrecy is the original sin. The fig leaf in the Garden of Eden. The basic crime against love.