Never apologize for how you chose to survive.

The second day of the book tour I stopped an interviewer and said, “Aren’t you asking the wrong question?” The interviewer stared at me blankly.

“The question is not really why I chose to share my experiences with other people. The question we should be dealing with is why does anyone mistreat their children? I think that’s what we should be talking about.

Only the strong will remain, all the weak will be consumed by fire

Even if our survival skills have become impediments we would like to let go of because they have ceased to serve us, we can still love ourselves with them. In appreciation of our survival, we can be awed at how our resources brought us through, even when these resources were things like indifference, a wall of rage, a cold heart…We learn to embrace ourselves as humans with faults and problems.

She told me that my rape was not my fault, that I should feel no shame, that – simple as it may sound – I hadn’t caused it. No one causes rape but rapists. No one causes rape but rapists. No one causes rape but rapists. It was true. And it had not been obvious to me. And hearing it from someone else, a professional, someone who should know, helped me believe that soon I would believe it.

I don't understand why some kids git a good school and mother and father and some don't. But Rita say forgit the WHY ME shit and git on to what's next.