“My mother says that pain is hidden in everyone you see. She says try to imagine it like big bunches of flowers that everyone is carrying around with them. Think of your pain like a big bunch of red roses, a beautiful thorn necklace. Everyone has one.”

“Everyone,” she continues, looking around at all of us, “has something to say. But not everyone can bear to say it. Your job is to find a way.”

“Life is painful. It has thorns, like the stem of a rose. Culture and art are the roses that bloom on the stem. The flower is yourself, your humanity. Art is the liberation of the humanity inside yourself.”

“Everyone likes happiness, no one likes pain. But you can't have a rainbow without a little rain.”

“Everyone is in pain. No matter where they come from or what you think of them. Sorrow spares no one”

“Maybe if everyone walked around being in touch with each other's hidden pain it could work out and even be beautiful, but it doesn't feel safe to be the only compassionate person on the planet.”

“But one of the big lessons I have learned from my journey is you can’t please everyone, so don’t try.”

“I wish everyone had the same chances," I say. "Because it stinks a big one that they don't." - Catherine”

“To find beauty in everyone you must see beauty in everyone, then announce that you see it, for in announcing it, you place it there in their reality. Make it your life's mission today to bring to the attention of another just how extraordinary they are. Say it. Say it. SAY it. Their heart is waiting to know that their own best thought about themselves can be believed.”

“I have a great family, I have great friends, and my mom is like my mama bear. She's the one that's going to tell me 'no' when everyone around me says 'yes.”