“I had carried on when all I wanted was to be dead. I had stayed alive for other people. I never stayed alive for myself. I cannot begin to describe the intensity of that effort.”
Source: Shoot the Damn Dog: A Memoir of Depression
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Sally Brampton5
British writer 1955–2016Related quotes
“I stayed alive therefore I am.”
Imre Kertész book Kaddish for an Unborn Child
Kaddish for a Child Not Born (1990)
“I want to be like Gandhi and Martin Luther King and John Lennon but i want to STAY ALIVE.”
Madonna (1958) American singer, songwriter, and actress
“If I had stayed for other people to make my tools and things for me, I had never made anything.”
Isaac Newton (1643–1727) British physicist and mathematician and founder of modern classical physics
This first appears in the Isaac Newton : A Biography (1934), citing unpublished papers by John Conduitt reporting an anecdote of an occassion where Conduitt asked Newton where he obtained the tools to make his reflecting telescope. Newton is said to have laughed and replied, "If I had stayed for other people to make my tools and things for me I had never made anything of it."
Disputed
Langston Hughes (1902–1967) American writer and social activist
"Motto"
Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951)
Variant: My motto,
As I live and learn,
is:
Dig And Be Dug
In Return.
“I prefer to stay alive and be criticized than be sympathized.”
Golda Meir (1898–1978) former prime minister of Israel
Fallaci interview (1973)
“I am as much or as little accomplice to my staying alive as I was to my birth.”
Imre Kertész book Kaddish for an Unborn Child
Kaddish for a Child Not Born (1990)
Context: I am still here, although I don’t know why; accidentally, I guess, as I was born; I am as much or as little accomplice to my staying alive as I was to my birth.
Usher (1978) American singer, songwriter, dancer and actor
Source: From an interview with VIBE, " Caught Up http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=hSYEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA68&lpg=PA68&dq=%22It+can+never+be+bad+to+have+a+foundation+as+a+man%22+usher&source=bl&ots=znEcU5UzFB&sig=nSA9TRsN-0VmlAwizQ_1eicZRP0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ow81T8e2JOet0QWamd2xAg&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22It%20can%20never%20be%20bad%20to%20have%20a%20foundation%20as%20a%20man%22%20usher&f=false" (July 2008), p. 65-71.