Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can make me think I deserved it.
I was bright, and I could use that as a weapon: words can wound, whatever those sticks and stones sayings claim about them never hurting, and I could use them if I had to.
I put a lot of stock in the written word, and the power of it. That's what I love about acting and reading scripts. Words are really powerful. I don't believe that axiom at all - words can absolutely hurt you. Words can wound. They can do a lot of damage. I think they can do way more damage than sticks and stones. I'll take sticks and stones.
Words are more powerful than perhaps anyone suspects, and once deeply engraved in a child's mind, they are not easily eradicated.
The imagination is of so delicate a texture that even words wound it.
Words were power, words tried to change you, to shape bridges of longing that no one could ever really cross.
One of the things that all kids are taught by their parents is this old "sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me."
