Arshay Cooper > Quotes

“I will never understand why the ones we like don’t like us back, or why we’re never interested in the ones who actually do like us.”
― Arshay Cooper, A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

“I get it, but I don’t wanna be at the wrong place at the wrong time. And there won’t be a wrong time if I can avoid the wrong place.”
― Arshay Cooper, A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

“Tunnel vision is focus,’ he explains. ‘Limiting what you see or think. When you’re in a tunnel you can only go one way.”
― Arshay Cooper, A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

“My legs are vibrating, but I can’t tell if it’s from fear or instability or both.”
― Arshay Cooper, A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

“If you don’t wear spandex, and your shorts get caught, it will cost you your race.'
'Yeah, and if we wear those it will cost us our live,' Alvin says, laughing.”
― Arshay Cooper, A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

“Grace seems easy like Sunday morning while the other girls seem hard to deal with like Monday morning.”
― Arshay Cooper, A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

“It seems like the more I try to become a better person for myself and others, the more shit I get. I don’t care, though, because I’m on a mission: to love my team more, love my family more, and love myself more.”
― Arshay Cooper, A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

“Being on the water is the only thing that calms the storm in us.”
― Arshay Cooper, A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

“It is all about her and I’m happy to let her talk. It’s like listening to my favorite song.”
― Arshay Cooper, A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

“We will teach you, because every time you conquer a fear, life gets a lot less scary.”
― Arshay Cooper, A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

“I really believe that people don’t understand how much I learned from watching Family Matters, The Fresh Prince of Bel-air and A Different World. Dwayne Wayne’s character taught me that not matter how hard school gets or not matter what people say about your physical appearance, push through it and be yourself, and always give back to the place that gave to you. Steve Urkel’s character taught me how to love a girl and the importance of patience. The Fresh Price of Bel-air demonstrated how to be a good son, and even if you are without a father, there is still a bright future that lies ahead. I practice everything I learn from these shows in my daily life and I get positive results.”
― Arshay Cooper, A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

“I’m also scared of shootings, but I still go outside.”
― Arshay Cooper, A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

“That day put a hole in my heart that I didn’t know how to fix.”
― Arshay Cooper, A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

“Man, if you put that fool’s brain in a bird it would fly backwards.”
― Arshay Cooper, A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

“As young people, we shout to the rooftop that we want to go to college, make the NBA, graduate high school, win a race, or get a job. Those things will never come to pass if we sit on our butts and just say we want it. We have to get up, put in the work, and get it because if we don’t someone will take what is supposed to be ours, like that twenty dollars.”
― Arshay Cooper, A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

“I feel close to this group and know that the moment we experience pain together, we become a team. We feel the same agony because we care about the same thing.”
― Arshay Cooper, A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

“It’s like a bank account: You have nothing to withdraw if you don’t make a deposit. A lot of times teachers and parents just want to withdraw from us. They want to know our problems, secrets, and the things that are going on in our lives. They wonder why we never tell them anything, and the reason is because they’ve never made any deposits. Ken is excellent at making trust and faith deposits in our lives.”
― Arshay Cooper, A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

“Terry, the most overweight of our teammates, is all the way in back for the entire run. He is yelling that he can’t do it, so Ken goes and runs by his side, motivating him and pushing him the whole time. Ken talks to Terry about believing in himself, and tells him that by the end of the week he will not be last. Ken asks a few of us to continue to push Terry, even though we are pretty exhausted. Some of us have never run hills before, and we’re still out of shape.”
― Arshay Cooper, A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

“myself. People always tell me that I’m young and should enjoy being a teenager, but to me it’s only temporary fun. Being a teenager is all about fake friends, being broke, and a constant battle for popularity. While I lean back in the boat, I think about Ken’s first speech in the gym when he told us that if we went on”
― Arshay Cooper, A Most Beautiful Thing

“Being around Grace makes me want to succeed.”
― Arshay Cooper, A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

“I can’t even look at the crowd I feel so ashamed. The boat is moving, but the timing is off. Chances are everyone is somewhere else mentally.”
― Arshay Cooper, A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

“When we notice the prices on the menu we ask Ken if we can have the money instead and just go to Burger King. He laughs and tells us no because life is about experiencing new things. When the waiter takes our orders, Preston asks for the filet mignon but pronounces it totally wrong. Alvin asks for the New York strip steak, and then asks to substitute the sides for another New York strip steak. The waiter starts laughing, but we don’t because we know he is serious. Malcolm and I both play it safe with pasta. It was always a dream of mine to eat at a fancy restaurant. Now that the dream is fulfilled, there is room for more dreams.”
― Arshay Cooper, A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

“It’s amazing how beauty calms fear, like seeing Grace last night after struggling in the pool.”
― Arshay Cooper, A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

“It takes a village to raise a child, but out village is gang members, drug dealers, drug addicts, and prostitutes.”
― Arshay Cooper

“I was trying to get him to understand that it’s not just trying or wanting to change. I believe you have to make a choice, you have to decide.”
― Arshay Cooper, A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

“I hope you know going to chapel every day don’t make you a Christian, just like sleeping in a garage every day don’t make you a car.”
― Arshay Cooper, A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

“See, there is a positive side to everything, Arshay. You have to refuse to look at the negative. So what you guys didn’t win your first race, or you hit a wall. I will tell you this: in ten years, no one will remember that St. Ignatius team, but people are going to remember who you guys are.”
― Arshay Cooper, A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

“The teachers have to be peacemakers, mentors, parents, friends, security guards, and social workers. It’s stressing them out; I notice it when I see them leaving the restroom or teacher’s lounge in tears.”
― Arshay Cooper, A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team

“I know she thinks she’s strong by holding on to him, but as my aunt says, “You are stronger if you can let go.” I want Grace to know what she’s worth, and I promise her I will be patient with her in this process.”
― Arshay Cooper, A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team