“sometimes I feel like everyone else is carrying a bucket of water but I’m trying to carry an ocean. its very hard. sometimes I would rather not carry my ocean, even if it meant I couldn’t be alive.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean
“Depression is having a crowd of dementors live in your head twenty-four/seven.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean
“Frankly, I’m awesome, and anybody who doesn’t agree should get out of my way.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean
“I am normal. I belong. I have a friend who can kick ass from a wheelchair. I live independently and get good grades. I'm an excellent lover.
Like I said. I'm awesome. I'm Emmet David Washington. Train Man. The best autistic Blues Brother on the block.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean
“Sometimes I liked him for his smile. Sometimes I liked him because he didn’t smile. Sometimes I got an erection because of the way he brushed his hair away from his face. It didn’t matter to my brain that these were odd reasons to care for someone. My brain, my body, my everything wanted to be Jeremey’s boyfriend.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean
“No one is normal. Normal is a lie.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean
“That's my ocean. I have to pretend as best I can to be like people on the mean so people don't call me a robot. I'm not a robot. I'm real and I have feelings the same as everyone else. And I want a boyfriend. Except my ocean doesn't make me want to be dead. It makes me want to fight. I want you to fight too, Jeremey. I want us to carry our oceans together.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean
“I really am Super Emmet, and like the comic book Superman, I have a powerful secret weapon. My mom.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean
“my emotions feel loud and big. its hard for me to keep hold of them. they weigh me down. make me heavy and tired and overwhelmed. sometimes I feel like everyone else is carrying a bucket of water but I’m trying to carry an ocean. its very hard. sometimes I would rather not carry my ocean, even if it meant I couldn’t be alive.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean
“Remember having a panic attack isn’t a failure, and not having one isn’t a success. Success is not letting the attacks run your life”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean
“It’s like Elwood Blues says: everybody needs somebody to love. I’m an everybody. I get a somebody.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean
“I don’t think people understand about suicidal thoughts. They act as if everyone who makes an attempt is looking for attention.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean
“People are good medicine, but they can’t be your foundation of functionality. You must build that yourself.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean
“There is no normal, not really. Not a right and a wrong way to be. But there is belonging. That day in Bohemia with Jeremey and David and the girls, I belonged. I belonged as much as anybody on the mean. Maybe even a little bit more.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean
“There is no normal. There is not an invisible bar you must meet to be acceptable to society.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean
“I can't live in the dorms and I can't stop people from calling me a freak, but I can always solve for X.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean
“Mental illness is no different than a heart condition. In the same way a faulty valve can cause harm to the body and require medication and care, so does a malfunctioning brain. Insanity is a crude, culturally loaded term setting the sufferer apart in a way which will not aid the patient’s recovery. The way we regard those whose brains hinder them with fault or injury is a prejudice, not a diagnosis.” Dr. North”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean
“My anger and sadness was my ocean, and I couldn’t carry it. Not anymore. No one could really love me. Not when they could love somebody else instead.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean
“When you have an invisible disease, your sickness isn’t your biggest problem. What you end up battling more than anything else, every single day, is other people.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean
“Mrs. Samson is a bitch, Mom.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean
“Nothing in the world is the same as anything else, so how can anyone be normal?”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean
“it’s okay to go slow. That everybody else’s pace and definition of success isn’t mine. What is easy for other people isn’t necessarily so for me. Though some things are easy for me and hard for other people.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean
“There is no normal, not really. Not a right and a wrong way to be. But there is belonging.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean
“Mom, stop. I have a boyfriend. Jeremey. Why do you think I’ve been hanging out with him so much? But I can’t talk about that right now. He’s upset. I have to fix it.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean
“Everything will change, if you wait long enough.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean
Heidi Cullinan
Born place: in Maquoketa, Iowa, The United States
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“Secrets carve us like water carves stone. On the surface nothing will shift, but things we cannot tell anyone chafe and consume us, and slowly our life settles around them, moulds itself into their shape.
Secrets gnaw at the bonds between people. Sometimes we believe they can also build them: if we let another person into the silent space a secret has made within us, we are no longer alone there.”
― Emmi Itäranta, quote from Memory of Water
“Sometimes in a marriage, it is easier to just buy peace and pay the price of swallowing your ego and keeping quiet.”
― Preeti Shenoy, quote from The Secret Wish List
“Reason shapes the future, but superstition infects the present.”
― Iain M. Banks, quote from The State of the Art
“Elves, pixies, gnomes- the Moomins, Chorlton and the Wheelies, SpongeBob SquarePants- they all tried to invade you at some point.”
― Jacqueline Rayner, quote from Doctor Who: The Stone Rose
“Perhaps tomorrow I shall pick up one of the houses, any one, and, holding it gently in one hand, pull it carefully apart with my other hand, with great delicacy taking the pieces of it off one after another: first the door and then, dislodging the slight nails with care, the right front corner of the house, board by board, and then, sweeping out the furniture inside, down the right wall of the house, removing it with care and not touching the second floor, which should remain intact even after the first floor is entirely gone. Then the stairs, step by step, and all this while the mannikins inside run screaming from each section of the house to a higher and a more concealed room, crushing one another and stumbling and pulling frantically, slamming doors behind them while my strong fingers pull each door softly off its hinges and pull the walls apart and lift out the windows intact and take out carefully the tiny beds and chairs; and finally they will be all together like seeds in a pomegranate, in one tiny room, hardly breathing, some of them fainting, some crying, and all wedged in together looking in the direction from which I am coming, and then, when I take the door off with sure careful fingers, there they all will be, packed inside and crushed back against the wall, and I shall eat the room in one mouthful, chewing ruthlessly on the boards and the small sweet bones.”
― Shirley Jackson, quote from Hangsaman
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number9dreamBookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
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