"You would be amazed by what you can give up, lose, or break, and yet still be a person who gets happy over brownies."
Read quote
214 likes
Quote collection
Augusten Burroughs quotes (page 1 of 13)
248 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"...handsome people are always interesting to watch. But a handsome person in crisis is riveting."
Read quote
189 likes
"You need to grab your dream out of the sky like it's a kite and pinch the string through your fingers until you reach the spool."
Read quote
105 likes
"I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions."
Read quote
55 likes
"I can't tell you how much I love Target and Costco, that kind of culture, because it's something I never felt a part of. I've always felt like a tourist because I have never fit in anywhere."
Read quote
51 likes
"Should I just sit down, right here at carousel seven, and shake until somebody's arms are around me and they're saying, 'It's okay, I'm here, I'm here, come with me to the institute."
Read quote
49 likes
"I knew that if I wrote a new book every six months or every year, if I continued to read great books, eventually I would write something worthy of publication. I understood I might be in my forties or my fifties or even my sixties, but I felt confident that it would happen."
Read quote
33 likes
"Self-pity is the bestiality of emotions: it absolutely disgusts people. When you're feeling pity for yourself, and somebody says to you 'You think maybe it's time for the pity party to be over? You should stop feeling sorry for yourself and try to think positive,' it makes you wish you could saw their head off."
Read quote
33 likes
"No matter how huge your loss, as long as you remain engaged with your life, the best days of your life may still be ahead of you. Don't misunderstand me: the pain of your loss will remain with you for the rest of your life. But great joy will be there right beside it. Deep sorrow and deep joy can exist within you, side by side. At every moment. And it's not confusing. And it's not a conflict."
Read quote
28 likes
"You are allowed to be alive. You are allowed to be somebody different. You are allowed to not say goodbye to anybody or explain a single thing to anyone, ever."
Read quote
25 likes
"This is how you survive the unsurvivable, this is how you lose that which you cannot bear to lose, this is how you reinvent yourself, overcome your abusers, fulfill your ambitions and meet the love of your life: by following what is true, no matter where it leads you."
Read quote
25 likes
"His laugh is made if porch swings and lemonade"
Read quote
24 likes
"The truth about not having everything you need, not being fully equipped or qualified or allowed is that these limits are the nebula of creative genius. When you have total freedom i.e: no limits at all. You stop trying to make the best of things"
Read quote
22 likes
"But I can also write in crappy motel rooms, while standing in line, or sitting in the dentist's chair."
Read quote
19 likes
"I really look at my childhood as being one giant rusty tuna can that I continue to recycle in many different shapes."
Read quote
18 likes
"I wouldn't want to waste any of my brain cells on forgiving if it's holding me back."
Read quote
18 likes
"The past does not haunt us. We haunt the past. We allow our minds to focus in that direction. We open memories and examine them. We reexperience emotions we felt during the painful events we experienced because we are recalling them in as much detail as we can."
Read quote
18 likes
"I used to feel so alone in the city. All those gazillions of people and then me, on the outside. Because how do you meet a new person? I was very stunned by this for many years. And then I realized, you just say, "Hi." They may ignore you. Or you may marry them. And that possibility is worth that one word."
Read quote
17 likes
"But feelings, no matter how strong or “ugly,” are not a part of who you are. They are the radio stations your mind listens to if you don’t give it something better to do. Feelings are fluid and dynamic; they change frequently. Feelings are something you HAVE, not something you ARE. Like physical beauty, a cold sore, or an opinion. Admitting you feel rage or terrible pain or regret or some old, rotten blame does not mean these feelings are part of who you are as a person. What these feelings mean is, you have to change your thinking to be free of them."
Read quote
17 likes
"This is what you should know about losing someone you love. They do not travel alone. You go with them."
Read quote
17 likes