Caroline Kaufman > Quotes

“It's okay if some things
are always out of reach.
If you could carry all the stars
in the palm of your hand,
they wouldn't be
half as breathtaking”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters in: Poems

“You can't root yourself
In the ground, hoping the world
Will grow around you.

You were made to do
More than hide in the shadows
Of another's leaves”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters in: Poems

“Be grateful that
Time will heal the wounds but
Leave the scars.

How else will you
Remember all that
You've survived?”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters in: Poems

“I am not pretty.
I have never been pure or soft or sweet.
I am beautiful.
Dirt still on my shoulder as I rise from the ground. Scars forming and healing like galaxies over my skin.
I am beautiful in the way I fought back when I was buried.
I turned the dirt and mud into soil, and grew.”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters in: Poems

“Don't ask for respect;
Demand it.

Don't look for opportunity;
Grab it.

Don't add to the world;
Change it.”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters in: Poems

“This year, I fell in love with myself.
I told myself thank you.
I'm sorry.
It's okay.
Thank you for fighting to survive even when I don't want to.
I'm sorry I blame you for things you can't control.
It's okay that you're not perfect.
I will love you anyway.
Now, I look at my face in the mirror instead of my body.
You are the most important person in my life.”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters in: Poems

“The wounds have healed and the scars are fading.
My skin is pale and smooth.
I've started to confide in my closest friends.
They embrace me.
Support me.
Surround me.
For the first time, it is scarier to think about going back than to think about moving forward.”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters in: Poems

“I am still learning to let myself grow.
I am still learning that it is not selfish to let myself become the person I am meant to be.”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters in: Poems

“I am done being delicate.
As a girl, I was taught to be sweet,
to be dainty,
to fold into myself until I was nothing more than crumpled paper.
This is my unfolding.
I will use gunpowder to set my makeup and gasoline as my perfume.
Next time you try to burn me at the stake, I will burn back.
I will start a fire you cannot control.”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters in: Poems

“I am a book
with the pages all worn.

the cover is tearing,
the ink is fading,

but I swear I'm worth the read.”
― Caroline Kaufman, When the World Didn't End

“you held my wrists, propped me up, and moved me on your stage;
all my life has been a script and you wrote every page.
you set a backdrop, painted smiles, hid what was within;
come one, come all, and see her now: the doll in human skin!”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters in: Poems

“right now, I am a rough draft;
I am here to be
revisited and revised.
hard as I try,
I am not the girl poets speak of.
I am not made up of ocean tides
and my heart is not a crystal drum;
it will always be a weapon
more than anything.
I am an incomplete masterpiece,
full of crossed-out words and changes.
no one ever calls the first draft beautiful,
and I will never be the final piece.”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters in: Poems

“if you think you are drowning,
just remember:

you float in water.”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters in: Poems

“This year, I fell in love with myself.
I told myself thank you.
I'm sorry.
It's okay.
Thank you for fighting to survive even when I don't want to.
I'm sorry I blame you for things you can't control.
It's okay that you're not perfect.
I will love you anyway.”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters in: Poems

“well, you made it.
you survived.
the unbearable weight suddenly lifted.
the endless night broke into dawn.
the uphill battle led you to a peak,
and now you stand tall at the summit.

so
what now?
what do you do next?
there is now air to breathe and room to grow
and time to fill and you did not plan for this,
you did not plan on having a life worth living.
and suddenly, there it is.

so,
what now?
how will you make the most of it?
how will you live the life
you fill and you did not plan for this,
you never thought you’d get the chance to see?”
― Caroline Kaufman, When the World Didn't End

“last night, I felt it.
happiness.
I didn't recognize the spark at first.
I had forgotten what it was like.
but then, there it was.
a flash of light.
a second of warmth.
a glimmer of hope when all I had for years was darkness.
and just the idea that this might not last forever is motivation enough to keep going.”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters in: Poems

“The problem was not asking him to complete me.
The problem was believing I was incomplete to begin with.”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters in: Poems

“writing was not a stage
or a museum exhibit—
it was an echo chamber,
a way to talk to someone,
even if that someone
was my own voice
bouncing back at me.”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters in: Poems

“He tells me, you are a complicated person to love. I know, I reply. I struggle with it every day.”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters in: Poems

“I am still mourning the person I was supposed to grow into. I am still learning to forgive myself for being the person I am today.”
― Caroline Kaufman, When the World Didn't End

“Find yourself in a page.
Look at where you are.
Find your past in the pages before.
Look at all that you have survived.
Find your future in the pages after.
Look at all that you have ahead.
This is not the end of your book.
You are right at the heart of it.
Keep reading.”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters in: Poems

“I'm sure you've been offered the world, you're deserving of each land.
I bet you could sew up the valleys and mountains with just the touch of your hand.
I'm sure you've been offered the world, but my pockets have all been worn through.
So I'll write you an ocean, I'll write you a sky, and hope that's enough for you.”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters in: Poems

“The happiness will come slowly,
the way light filters in through the window in the early morning hours.
So slowly you don't even notice the night is ending,
until you wake up and see the sunlight.”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters in: Poems

“Find yourself in a page.
Look at where you are.
Find your past in the pages before.
Look at all that you have survived.
Find your future in the pages after.
Look at all that you have ahead.”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters in: Poems

“I’ve spent so much time trying to become who I should be that I lost myself along the way.”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters in: Poems

“How will my mental illness affect my romantic relationships? What will happen when I become emotionally vulnerable? Will they stay?”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters in: Poems

“for all of our wounds will be healed with time.”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters In: Poems

“every minute I have on this earth
is borrowed time.
I fought for it,
almost died for it,
and won it back.”
― Caroline Kaufman, When the World Didn't End

“it is hard to be proud of how far you’ve come when there will always be miles and miles ahead of you.”
― Caroline Kaufman, When the World Didn't End

“There are times that I am doing so well, I stop taking my meds. And suddenly I feel like the light switch has flipped off. And suddenly I feel like I am not better because of my hard work.
And suddenly I feel like a fraud. I try to remind myself that the brain is an organ, that this is a disease, that diabetics need insulin and no one thinks of that as cheating. I try to remind myself
that this is not a boost, this is a treatment. So I swallow my pride along with my pills and let myself get better.”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters in: Poems