Shane L. Koyczan Quotes

• “I've been told
  that people in the army
  do more by 7:00 am
  than I do
  in an entire day
  
  But if I wake
  at 6:59 am
  and turn to you
  to trace the outline of your lips
  with mine
  I will have done enough
  and killed no one
  in the process.”

  Shane L. Koyczan

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• “I sit before flowers
  hoping they will train me in the art
  of opening up
  
  I stand on mountain tops believing
  that avalanches will teach me to let go
  
  I know
  nothing
  
  but I am here to learn.”

  Shane L. Koyczan

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• “Don't let your luggage define your travels, each life unravels differently.”

  Shane L. Koyczan

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• “If your heart is broken, make art with the pieces."
  
  [Blueprint for a Breakthrough (2013)]”

  Shane L. Koyczan

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• “And you are worth the time it takes to take the time to get to know you. We've managed to muttle through the awkward stage of i like you and you like me, but when we both finally said 'yes' life became a multiple choice test, not knowing anything we became each others best guess. and, holding your hand is less like exploration and more like discovery. lady, i don't have to study you to be sure. you're the choice i made before i knew what the other choices were”

  Shane L. Koyczan

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• “And as for romance? Well, I want that too.
  I want to fall asleep next to you, 100 times a night,
  so I can know you 100 times better before we hit the day light. And despite all of this,
  I also want amnesia so I can relive each kiss with a perfect newness
  that leaves me smashed in the arms of rapture. I want the sky to fracture under
  the impossible weight of an apology because I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I want so much.
  I'm sorry that I'm using "I'm sorry" as a crutch to lean on for so long
  but if you sing me that song of sweet logic again then I promise to make the effort
  to stand on my own. There is a reason that our hearts are more like a muscle
  and less like a bone. I've known so many people who've have grown up flexing
  in front of mirrors and falling for their own reflection as if that's adequate but that's bullshit.
  Because we only get now until the time we go and if they've only got time to love themselves
  then nobody is going to be around to hear the sound of their heartbeat echo.
  So lady, don't expect an apology when I tell you I'm only held together
  by a heart that pumps blue, it's the strongest muscle in my body and I'm flexing it for you”

  Shane L. Koyczan

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• “but I want to tell them
  that all of this shit
  is just debris
  leftover when we finally decide to smash all the things we thought
  we used to be
  and if you can’t see anything beautiful about yourself
  get a better mirror
  look a little closer
  stare a little longer
  because there’s something inside you
  that made you keep trying
  despite everyone who told you to quit
  you built a cast around your broken heart
  and signed it yourself
  you signed it
  “they were wrong”
  because maybe you didn’t belong to a group or a click
  maybe they decided to pick you last for basketball or everything
  maybe you used to bring bruises and broken teeth
  to show and tell but never told
  because how can you hold your ground
  if everyone around you wants to bury you beneath it
  you have to believe that they were wrong
  
  they have to be wrong”

  Shane L. Koyczan

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• “and if you can’t see anything beautiful about yourself
  get a better mirror
  look a little closer
  stare a little longer
  because there’s something inside you
  that made you keep trying
  despite everyone who told you to quit
  you built a cast around your broken heart
  and signed it yourself
  you signed it
  “they were wrong”

  Shane L. Koyczan

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• “Don't tell me you're not beautiful. You're the kind of beautiful the blind would see if we could figure out some way to give them three seconds of sight.”

  Shane L. Koyczan

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• “We grew up learning to cheer on the underdog because we see ourselves in them.”

  Shane L. Koyczan

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• “We so seldom understand each other. But if understanding is neither here nor there, and the universe is infinite, then understand that no matter where we go we will always be smack dab in the middle of nowhere. All we can do is share some piece of ourselves, and hope that it’s remembered. Hope that we meant something to someone”

  Shane L. Koyczan

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• “I will love myself despite the ease with which I lean toward the opposite.”

  Shane L. Koyczan

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• “I’m not the only kid
  who grew up this way
  surrounded by people who used to say
  that rhyme about sticks and stones
  as if broken bones
  hurt more than the names we got called
  and we got called them all
  so we grew up believing no one
  would ever fall in love with us
  that we’d be lonely forever
  that we’d never meet someone
  to make us feel like the sun
  was something they built for us
  in their tool shed
  so broken heart strings bled the blues
  as we tried to empty ourselves
  so we would feel nothing
  don’t tell me that hurts less than a broken bone
  that an ingrown life
  is something surgeons can cut away
  that there’s no way for it to metastasize
  
  it does”

  Shane L. Koyczan

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• “I don't want to turn any of this into poetry / but / you're so beautiful / flowers turn their heads to smell you”

  Shane L. Koyczan

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• “What I said was
  I’ll miss you
  what I meant to say was
  I love you
  what I wanted to say was
  that I meant what I said
  and it’s funny
  how all those things I
  could have said
  flooded my head after we said goodbye
  and I should have told you
  I’d be willing to hold you
  until my flesh crumbles into bone
  because I’m willing to die alone
  but god knows I don’t want to live that way.”

  Shane L. Koyczan

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• “I sit before flowers
  
hoping they will train me in the art
  
of opening up”

  Shane L. Koyczan

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• “Someone once told me that the finer points of devotion are about the size of a pinhole, and there are millions of them. And if you could connect each dot, then you’ve got a diagram of what you think you thought you knew, and if you’re willing to admit that you know nothing…you have the blueprint for a breakthrough.”

  Shane L. Koyczan

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• “A question like “do you love me?” was an itch our doctors told us not to scratch.”

  Shane L. Koyczan

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• “Sometimes becoming drug free has less to do with addiction and more to do with sanity.”

  Shane L. Koyczan

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• “My heart is a protest that I let rally against my ribs.”

  Shane L. Koyczan

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• “You see, the deaf have an intimacy with silence. It’s there in their dreams.”

  Shane L. Koyczan

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• “I you can't see anything beautiful about yourself, get a better mirror. Look a little closer, stare a little longer. Because there is something inside you that made you keep trying despite everyone who told you to quit. You built a cast around your broken heart and signed it yourself, you signed it THEY WERE WRONG.”

  Shane L. Koyczan

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• “And if you can’t see anything beautiful about yourself, get a better mirror. Look a little closer. Stare a little longer. Because there’s something inside you that made you keep trying despite everyone who told you to quit.”

  Shane L. Koyczan

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• “He tried to kill himself in grade ten, when a kid who still had his mom and dad had the audacity to tell him ‘Get over it’. As if depression is something that can be remedied by any of the contents in a first aid-kit.”

  Shane L. Koyczan

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• “To discover the thing you're brilliant at you first have to endure realizing all the things you're average at.”

  Shane L. Koyczan

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