Colleen Coleman > Quotes

“But if you want to be fully functional and fully human, I think you need to learn to live with regret”
― Colleen Coleman, Don't Stop Me Now

“If you make a mistake because of pressure from somebody else, you don’t come away with a lesson, you come away with anger and blame.”
― Colleen Coleman, I'm Still Standing

“You've created this distance not because your community rejected you but because you felt you were not worthy of being part of it. This is an easy trap to fall into, Benny. Believe me, I've done it myself. For a long time, I labelled myself shy and quiet, until I started to realise that I'd outgrown that label. I wasn't that person anymore. And my label was keeping me from things I wanted to do, people I wanted to get closer to.”
― Colleen Coleman, Don't Stop Me Now

“If you’re not growing, you are decaying.”
― Colleen Coleman, Don't Stop Me Now

“Objective reality: I am breathing. I am safe. I am warm... no, I'm not warm, they only ever heat this box room for Christmas. Okay, anyway I'm healthy... 
Subjective reality: I AM FAILING AT EVERY CONCEIVABLE LEVEL”
― Colleen Coleman, Don't Stop Me Now

“between”
― Colleen Coleman, Don't Stop Me Now

“I am not a daredevil. I am not an adrenaline junkie. In fact, I wouldn't even call myself mildy athletic, seeing as the last time I ran was for a taxi home on a Friday night after a few too many at The Black Boar. I've generally been known to tuck away in my little cottage with a good book and go to the library and wander through the labyrinths of shelves or make a cup of tea and spend a lazy day gazing at a computer screen. Even on my days off.”
― Colleen Coleman, For Once in My Life

“He was wonderful, your dad – the love of my life. I knew he was the one for me. He listened to me. He always paid attention. There is no greater way to show love than by paying full attention. Inspecting the tiny details of someone else’s character like they are precious diamonds,”
― Colleen Coleman, I'm Still Standing

“And sometimes a little solitary reading is all the therapy a person needs.”
― Colleen Coleman, For Once in My Life

“people to throw their lives down the pan for laughable attempts at morality, remember, I’m on to you and I’m well aware that the devil can cite scripture for his purpose.’ My head falls into my hands. This woman is evil. ‘So, as you can tell if you’ve been tuned in, we have”
― Colleen Coleman, Don't Stop Me Now

“wake up to the moment I creep into the flat and collapse into my sister’s bed, I am fully alive, in the moment, thinking of nothing but what I am doing right here, right now. And that feels so liberating. Free from the regrets of the past and the pressures of the future. Just being here – just being – is more than enough.”
― Colleen Coleman, I'm Still Standing

“We used to do stuff together. Nice stuff. We used to be happy. She used to laugh and joke around, but now she just moans and sighs and sometimes shouts and yells.’ He flicks me a look. ‘I’m just saying how it is, Evelyn.’ I need to sit on my hands to steady them, I’m that angry. This marriage counselling was supposed to be about James realising he was a crappy husband; this is not about me. I nag and snap and yell because he makes me do it! If he just did what he was supposed to, when he was supposed to, and to a decent standard, I’d not have to go on at him like I do. My face is flushed with infuriation. I need to get myself together. I can’t sit here with a red face and”
― Colleen Coleman, I'm Still Standing

“crease in my heart for so very long. If there’s one”
― Colleen Coleman, I'm Still Standing

“That’s a very limited way to live. Life can be much broader once you understand one simple fact: everything around you was made up by people who were no smarter than you, no better than you; it’s just that they were really brave. And if you can find your courage, you can change whatever you need to, you can be in charge of your life and you can live the biggest, boldest life you can dream of. Once you”
― Colleen Coleman, I'm Still Standing

“mistake that makes me humble is better than an achievement that makes me arrogant.”
― Colleen Coleman, One Way or Another

“phone starts up again. ‘Well then, put your hand on your heart and hear me out: As a Hell Raiser – I am here to do my best. Only I know what my best is. I am not here to judge or be judged but to participate and have fun. I support my fellow Hell Raisers at all times. Teamwork and compassion before my course time; I do not whinge, because I am a bad-ass. When I fall, I get back up and I don’t look back.”
― Colleen Coleman, For Once in My Life

“Now, oven for ten minutes.”
― Colleen Coleman, Don't Stop Me Now

“Marianne”
― Colleen Coleman, The Irish Lake House

“is”
― Colleen Coleman, For Once in My Life

“Into a bowl he chucks a cupful of oats, a mashed banana, some cranberries and peanut butter. ‘Mix that together, just roughly, no need to go over the top, and then form it into little balls.”
― Colleen Coleman, Don't Stop Me Now