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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It belongs to human nature to hate those you have injured.
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I have such respect for guest actors. They don't know all the characters as deeply as the regulars, and the cast isn't your family, so you have more at stake.
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When I was 18, I thought my father was pretty dumb. After a while when I got to be 21, I was amazed to find out how much he'd learned in three years.
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You can be predisposed genetically, but it's not a sentence. I'm genetically predisposed, but I manage my weight. The root of obesity, though, is usually emotional. The poor habits are a symptom of a deeper emotional issue.
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Art Nouveau got its inspiration from nature. The Bauhaus got its inspiration from engineering.
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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.
