Deborah Ellis Quotes
If I'm going to be a pessimist, then I should just stop writing for young people because that's too heavy a burden to put on young readers. But also, I get to meet with people who have waded through horrible things, and they get up every morning, and they try to do their best.
Quotes to Explore
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I've been a fortunate girl: I grew up in a family that loved me from day one. I feel well grounded and lucky from that. So everything else is a bonus, because I grew up in this family that I adored, and adored me, and I think when you have that, you are already ahead of the game in the sense of how you feel about yourself.
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I'm not a fan of people romanticizing their loved ones in death.
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I read my books to writing workshops and friends, and I'm often focussed just on keeping them entertained. I never think about marketing at all.
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Don't ever forget that a small group of thoughtful people can change the world, it's the only thing that ever has.
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I don't care about what people might call my style. It's just like when people call my music 'jangly,' 'dream,' 'oceanside,' whatever - I don't care. I'm just wearing whatever I can scrap together.
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The true Islam has shown me that a blanket indictment of all white people is as wrong as when whites make blanket indictments against blacks.
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I'm an actor, full stop. Not an Arab actor. Not an actor of Algerian origin. Just an actor.
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When I have a bad day, I dream about opening up a gelato stand on the streets of Sydney, Australia. Doesn't everyone have a random escape fantasy?
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Crazy old people are our entire source of polling information.
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I realise I have inadvertently become a source of inspiration and hope for people in India simply by the fact that I grew up there, went to my local university, but could go on to do well internationally.
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Some people believe they chose homosexuality, and some believe they didn't. Who's to say one is wrong? It's not fair to generalize anyone's sexuality or walk of life.
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I grew up on the rough side of the tracks. If you looked like you were soft, you would be fodder for the wolves. I came up in my neighbourhood like, 'I'm just gonna be me,' and all the thugs just said, 'It's OK, he's special.' They knew I had the talent with the rhymes, so they kept me around.
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Personal relationships are usually my biggest inspirations for writing my songs. The best way for me to write a song is to visualise the story in my head, and I start humming a melody, and before you know it, a song is born.
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I was brought up to think a lot about food and have respect for it, both as medicine and something to eat and enjoy.
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I'm not confident around compliments or being celebrated, and I'm not comfortable with the thought of envy, which some people thrive on.
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I grew up being scared of the water, which is embarrassing to say as an Australian, but it's true.
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It was easy to persecute me without people feeling ashamed. It was easy to vilify me and project me as a woman who was not following the tradition of a 'good African woman' and as a highly educated elitist who was trying to show innocent African women ways of doing things that were not acceptable to African men.
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I started recording because I was always complaining about the records that I was getting of my songs. At least if I did them and messed them up, I wouldn't have anyone else to blame.
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I don't know about the press, but I know in the town where I live everybody was aware that I was in Africa, because I remember after I got back some of the people told me that Mayor Dura of our town said he just wished they would boil me in tar.
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All roads that lead to God are good.
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I'm a professional actor, not a celebrity.
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As I was growing my social media following and doing things in Los Angeles, kids in my school would start to hate on me, tweet me stuff... you name it, they said it to me.
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We are all part of the same energy that envelops.
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If I'm going to be a pessimist, then I should just stop writing for young people because that's too heavy a burden to put on young readers. But also, I get to meet with people who have waded through horrible things, and they get up every morning, and they try to do their best.
