Confronting the Past Quotes

But [your crime] will be there, one hundred times denied, always there, dragging itself behind you. Then you will finally know that you have committed your life with one throw of the die, once and for all, and there is nothing you can do but tug our crime along until your death. Such is the law, just and unjust, of repentance. Then we will see what will become of your young pride.

But this was what happened when you didn't want to visit and confront the past: the past starts visiting and confronting you.

Truth is the lie you once told returning to haunt you

When I perform on stage I become those male bullies, those dominators from my childhood. That's probably why it's so scary, because they scared me.

Either you look back and deal with your hypocrisy, or you dismiss it.

The past is what makes the present coherent, and the past will remain horrible for exactly as long as we refuse to assess it honestly.

But there was no hiding from Conscience. Not in new homes and new cars. In travel. In meditation or frantic activity. In children, in good works. On tiptoes or bended knee. In a big career. Or a small cabin. It would find you. The past always did. Which was why... it was vital to be aware of actions in the present. Because the present became the past, and the past grew. And got up, and followed you. And found you... Who wouldn't be afraid of this?

As human beings, even if we were to have tried to forget the past, if you dealt with it in a cavalier fashion, it would return to haunt you.

Sometimes you can’t let go of the past without facing it again.

When the moment comes to stop running from your past, to turn around and face the thing you thought you could not face--the moment when your life teeters between giving up and getting up--when that moment comes, and it always comes, if you can't get up and you can't give up either, here's what you do: Crawl.

There are a series of emotions that most survivors go through after disclosing. It starts with feeling great, like the weight on your shoulders has been lifted, and then you're alone with your thoughts, like, 'Why did I do that?' And then, what about the person who gets backlash?

As long as we fail to face up to the past and deal with it accordingly, the future will smack of corruption.

Maybe if we tell the truth about the past, we can tell the truth about the present.

As a fiction writer, that's been a preoccupation of mine: Can you really just close the door and leave the past back there behind you, or is the door going to blow open at some point?