James Frey Quotes

“Leonard asks me if there's anything I need to know before he dies, I think about it for a minute, turn to him, say what's the meaning of life, Leonard? He laughs, says that's an easy one, my son, it's whatever you want it to be.”

“Be patient and wait. Your mud will settle. Your water will be clear.”

“I meet a third man he's an old man he trips in the street he falls and I help him up, walk him to the curb. He shakes my hand says keep the faith, young man. I ask him what he means, he says keep running and don't let them catch you.”

“If you care about what others think of you, then you will always be their slave.”

“I think of how and why and what happened and the thoughts come easily, but the answers don't.”

“In life we often look to others for simple, but difficult answers, despite the fact that we have those answers ourselves.”

“What's crazy is living your life according to some book written by someone who couldn't imagine what your life would be like.”

“Live and let live, do not judge, take life as it comes and deal with it, everything will be okay.”

“There is, though, nothing that prepares us for the worst things in our life. There is nothing you can do to stop the shock, or buffer the pain.”

“And even though people try to pretend that pain doesn't do anything to them, none of us can really handle it. Everything bad we do in our life is because of pain of some kind.”

“Laughing and Love. They are both drugs.”

“In Lilly's eyes her beautiful clear water eyes there is what I have sought and never found, wanted and never had, hoped for and never discovered. Love.”

“But love is different for every person. For some it's hate, for some it's joy, for some it's fear, for some it's jealousy, for some it's torture, for some it's peace. For some it's everything.”

“Love only brought me lonliness and horror.”

“Part of me still loves. More of me doesn't.”

“The wounds that never heal can only be mourned alone.”

“Pain is the feeling. Suffering is the effect the pain inflicts. If one can endure pain, one can live without suffering. If one can withstand pain, one can withstand anything. If one can learn to control pain, one can learn to control oneself.”

“There is no fear. Absolutely no fear. When one lives without fear, one cannot be broken. When one lives with fear one is broken before one begins to live.”

“More than anything, all I have ever wanted is to be close to someone. More than anything, all I have ever wanted is to feel as if I wasn't alone.”

“Let things be, let yourself be, let everything be and accept it as it is. Nothing more. Nothing less.”

“Even a second of freedom is worth more than a lifetime of bondage.”

“Everything I know and I am and I have seen felt done past present past now then before now seen felt done hurt felt focus into a something beyond words beyond beyond beyond and it speaks now and it says.
Stay.
Fight.
Live.
Take it.”

“Be content with what you have and take joy in the way things are. When you realize you have all you need, the World belongs to you.”

“And as ridiculous as it may sound, sometimes all any of us needs in life is for someone to hold our hand and walk next to us.”

“Are we biology or God or something higher? I know my heart beats and I listen to it. The beat is biology, but what is the song?”

“I feel strong. Not strong enough to face myself, but strong enough to keep going.”

“It's cold and it's winter and the world has gone to sleep”

“The past doesn't matter. People cling to it because it allows them to ignore the present.”

“Stay.
Fight.
Live.
Take it.
Cry.
Cry.
Cry.”

“Be smart, be strong, be proud, live honorably and with dignity, and just hold on.”

“You only live once, buy Picassos whenever possible.”

“Trauma is survivable, but often not much more. It kills you while allowing you to still live.”

“Addicts, as a group, generally score far above average o intelligence tests.
Why?
You tell me.
I guess maybe we're smart enough to have figured out how shitty things are and we decide addiction is the only way to deal with it.”

“And loss of control is always the source of fear. It is also, however, always the source of change.”

“I'm tired of making people sad and I'm tired of disappointing them and I'm tired of seeing them break. I have seen this too many times. He will be the last.”

“Sleep is still difficult I sleep for three or four hours a day. Usually sometime in the afternoon. I walk in the cold, keep myself numb. I cry less, and less." (James Frey, pg.88)”

“To live with angels and chase their dreams.”

“The promise of eternal life makes people forsake the life they're given.”

“I go to my Room and I drink and I smoke some cigarettes and I think about her. I drink and I smoke and I think about her and at a certain point blackness comes and my memory fails me.”

“She made me feel better than I have ever felt, better than I imagined I could feel, and it scared me, it scared me to the point of paralysis.”

“In my mind my obituary is done. It is done and it is right. It tells the truth and as awful as it can be, the truth is what matters. It is what I should be remembered by, if I'm remembered at all. Remember the truth. that is all that matters”

“I hope nobody took the Razzle Dazzle Rose.”

“The feeling of arms around me, of love in my heart, it was more powerful than any of the negativity I knew was existing in the world for me. That feeling of love killed it all.”

“I am aware that the battle I am fighting is a petty one, but I am also aware that in order to win that which is great, you must first win that which is small.”

“They had dreams but they called them dreams because they were unrelated to reality, they were a distant unknown, an impossibility, they would never come true.”

“I think men who can cry are strong men”

“I often think of death.
True.
Suicide is a reasonable option.
True.
My sins are unpardonable.
I stare at the question.
My sins are unpardonable.
I stare at the question.
My sins are unpardonable.
I leave it blank.”

“All of us started normal. All of us started out as functioning human beings with the potential to do almost anything we wanted, but somewhere along the paths of our lives, we got lost.”

“Its not just a smile of momentary happiness. When it disappears from my face, it will stay with me.”

“Life, not death, is the great mystery you must confront.”

“Enemies are a given. Friends are not.”

“No judgment, no condescension. Just hope.”

“I am alone. I have no one to talk to and no one to call”

“I look at Hank and he nods and I nod and for a brief second I feel strong. Not strong enough to face myself, but strong enough to keep going.”

“I would like to be soft and warm. I would be terrified to be that way. I could be hurt if I were soft and warm. I could be hurt by something other than myself. It is harder to be soft than it is to be hard. I could be hurt by something other than myself.”

“He starts to break and seeing him start to break makes me start to break and I don't want that. He steps forward and puts his arms around me and he hugs me and I hug him and it feels good and strong and pure and real. This is my Brother, my Blood, the only thing in this World created from which I am created from, the Person in this World who knows me best, the Person who would miss me most if I was gone. That he cared enough to come here and that he cares enough to nearly break in front of me means something, but in the end, I know that it means only so much.”

“Take the risk and do whatever you can do and try not to get caught. If you do get caught, do it again.”

“I think it's bullshit. People don't want to accept the responsibility for their own weakness so they place the blame on something that they're not responsible for, like a disease or genetics. As far as studies go, I could prove I was from Mars if you gave me enough time and enough resources.”

“What I know is that I can trust his eyes because what lives in them, lives in me.”

“I was weak and pathetic and I couldn't control myself. An explanation, especially a bullshit one, doesn't alter the circumstances. I need to change, I have to change, and at this point, change is my only option, unless I am ready to die. All that matters is that I make myself something else and someone else for the future.”

“I don't blame you for this and I don't think there's anything you could have done to stop it. I am what I am, which is an Alcoholic and a Drug Addict and a Criminal, and I am whats I am because I made myself so. You did the best you could with me, and you loved me the best you could, and that's all I could have ever asked for from you. I have no excuses for what I've done or for who I am or for what I put you though all these years.”

“All of us started out normal. All of us started out as functioning human beings with the potential to do almost anything we wanted, but somewhere along the paths of our lives we got lost. Though we are here at this Clinic trying to find our way back, we all know that most of us will never get there. Things like the fight allow us to dream, and take us away from here, and allow us to imagine what the normal World must be like and how normal people must live in it.”

“In the face of surviving long enough to survive in the long term, there is no goal that comes to mind that means anything to me. I could write Survive, but I would rather hold that word in my heart than write it on some fucking board.”