Look at an avalanche, and see that we are at our most powerful when we let go. Look at a flower, and see that we are at our most beautiful when we open up.

For me, growing up and going to school and not seeing any anti-bullying posters and not hearing people talk about bullying was very desolate.

I’ve been told that people in the army do more by 7:00 am than I do in an entire day But if I wake at 6:59 am and turn to you to trace the outline of your lips with mine I will have done enough and killed no one in the process.

We come from the mentality, that rarely sees the horror in symmetry or the beauty in non-conformity

I’ve been shot down so many times, I get altitude sickness just from standing up for myself.

If you think for one second no one knows what you’ve been going through; be accepting of the fact that you are wrong, that the long drawn and heavy breaths of despair have at times been felt by everyone – that pain is part of the human condition and that alone makes you a legion.

When something‘s painful, you just avoid it. Why bother dredging up the past if it’s nothing but bad stuff?

Having seen TED from a distance, I always thought if ever there was a place for someone like me, the outcasts, people who maintained who they are despite being told what they were, it was TED.

When I was a kid, I used to think pork chops and karate chops were the same thing.

Don’t tell me you’re not beautiful. You’re the kind of beautiful the blind would see if we could figure out some way to give them three seconds of sight.

Scrape the grey sky clean. Realize every grey cloud is a smoke screen to blind us from the truth, and the truth is whether we see them or not the sun and moon are still there, and always there is light.

The tiniest dream that you make happen is worth more than the biggest dream that you never attempt.

I you can’t see anything beautiful about yourself, get a better mirror. Look a little closer, stare a little longer. Because there is something inside you that made you keep trying despite everyone who told you to quit. You built a cast around your broken heart and signed it yourself, you signed it THEY WERE WRONG.

To discover the thing you’re brilliant at you first have to endure realizing all the things you’re average at.

Our lives will only ever always continue to be a balancing act that has less to do with pain and more to do with beauty.

I accept that today may be imperfect… I accept that I may be as well. What I don’t accept is that imperfection should be the crutch I use to excuse myself from participating in joy.

I think everybody gets bullied in their own way. Even athletes probably get it from their parents. To a degree everybody gets bullied.

Opera is the original marriage of words and music, and there’s a theatre element, a dramatic element. It’s right up my alley.

I sit before flowers hoping they will train me in the art of opening up I stand on mountain tops believing that avalanches will teach me to let go I know nothing but I am here to learn.

If your heart is broken, make art with the pieces.

I will not stop. I will not slow down. I will not pull over to ask for directions. I will build the road that takes me where I want to be and I will drive, drive, drive. I will drive until the vehicle around me breaks down, falls apart and tumbles into useless debris… and then I will walk.

Look directly into every mirror. Realize our reflection is the first sentence to a story, and our story starts: We were here.