Katherine Center > Quotes

“When you don't know what to do for yourself, do something for somebody else.”
― Katherine Center, How to Walk Away

“Choosing to love—despite all the ways that people let you down, and disappear, and break your heart. Knowing everything we know about how hard life is and choosing to love, anyway.. That’s not weakness, that’s courage.”
― Katherine Center, Things You Save in a Fire

“I think just because you can't keep something doesn't mean it wasn't worth it. Nothing lasts forever. What matters is what we take with us.”
― Katherine Center, The Bodyguard

“You can't make people love you. But you can give the love you long for out to the world. You can be the love you wish you had. That's the way to be okay. Because giving love to other people is a way of giving it to yourself.”
― Katherine Center, The Bodyguard

“It's the trying that heals you. That's all you have to do. Just try.”
― Katherine Center, How to Walk Away

“More than anything, I know that you just have to choose to make the best of things. You get one life, and it only goes forward. And there really are all kinds of happy endings.”
― Katherine Center, How to Walk Away

“I had a theory that we gravitate toward the stories we need in life. Whatever we are looking for- adventure, excitement, emotion, connection-we turn to stories that help us find it. Whatever questions we’re struggling with- sometimes ones so deep, we don’t even really know we’re asking them- we look for answers in stories.”
― Katherine Center, The Rom-Commers

“Nobody was perfect. Not even close. And everybody had wrinkles from smiling and squinting and craining their necks. Everybody has marks on their bodies from years of living- a trail of life left on them. Evidence of all the adventures and sleepless nights and practical jokes and heartbreaks that had made them who they are.”
― Katherine Center, Everyone is Beautiful

“It’s not the easy moments that define who we are. It’s the hard ones.”
― Katherine Center, Things You Save in a Fire

“Well, you're lucky. Because love is something you can learn. Love is something you can practice. It's something you can choose to get good at. And here's how you do it. Appreciate your person.
That's it.
Well—first be sure to choose a good person. But we're all good people here.
Choose a good, imperfect person who leaves the cap off the toothpaste, and puts the toilet paper roll on upside down, and loads the dishwasher like a ferret on steroids—and then appreciate the hell out of that person. Train yourself to see their best, most delightful, most charming qualities. Focus on everything they're getting right. Be grateful—all the time—and laugh the rest off.
And that goes for kids, too, by the way—and pets, and waiters, and even our own selves. There it is. The whole trick to life. Be aggressively, loudly, unapologetically grateful.”
― Katherine Center, The Rom-Commers

“I wondered if having faith in yourself was just deciding you could do it - whatever it was and then making yourself follow through.”
― Katherine Center, The Bodyguard

“Getting what you want doesn't make you happy... Having doesn't make you happy: appreciating does; Happiness is more about appreciation than acquisition.”
― Katherine Center, Happiness for Beginners

“It doesn't hurt to spend your life with people who see what's great about you - in a way that you maybe never would have on your own. The people we love to teach us who we are.”
― Katherine Center, The Bodyguard

“The things we remember are what we hold on to. And what we hold on to becomes the story of our lives.”
― Katherine Center, Happiness for Beginners

“I would never tell you that the life you wanted couldn't have been exactly as great as you planned. But you have to live the life you have. You have to find inspiration in the struggle, and pull joy out of the hardship. [...] Because that's all we can do: Carry the sorrow when we have to, and absolutely savor the joy when we can.”
― Katherine Center, How to Walk Away

“It's amazing how brave you can be when you feel safe.”
― Katherine Center, Things You Save in a Fire

“There is no better people-watching than at the airport: the whole world packed into such a tight space, moving fast with all their essentials in their rolling bags. And what caught my attention, as I took a few breaths and lay my eyes on the crowds, were all the imperfections. Everybody had them. Every single person that walked past me had some kind of flaw. Bushy eyebrows, moles, flared nostrils, crooked teeth, crows'-feet, hunched backs, dowagers' humps, double chins, floppy earlobes, nose hairs, potbellies, scars, nicotine stains, upper arm fat, trick knees, saddlebags, collapsed arches, bruises, warts, puffy eyes, pimples. Nobody was perfect. Not even close. And everybody had wrinkles from smiling and squinting and craning their necks. Everybody had marks on their bodies from years of living - a trail of life left on them, evidence of all the adventures and sleepless nights and practical jokes and heartbreaks that had made them who they were.

In that moment, I suddenly loved us all the more for our flaws, for being broken and human, for being embarrassed and lonely, for being hopeful or tired or disappointed or sick or brave or angry. For being who we were, for making the world interesting. It was a good reminder that the human condition is imperfection. And that's how it's supposed to be.”
― Katherine Center, Everyone is Beautiful

“Maybe love isn't a judgment you render - but a chance you take. Maybe it's something you choose to do over and over. For yourself and everyone else.”
― Katherine Center, The Bodyguard

“Whatever story you tell yourself about your life, that's the one that'll be true.”
― Katherine Center, The Rom-Commers

“If you wait for other people to light you up, then I guess you're at the mercy of darkness.”
― Katherine Center, The Rom-Commers

“When you’re not around, even for a little while, I feel like I have to go find you. I just feel this pull to be near you. I want to know what you’re thinking, and what you’re up to, and how you feel. I want to take you places and show you things. I want to memorize you—to learn you like a song. And that nightgown, and the way you get so cranky when I leave my stuff all over the place, and the way you tie your hair back in that crazy bun. You make me laugh every single day—and nobody makes me laugh. I feel like I’ve been lost all my life until now—and somehow with you I’m just … found.”
― Katherine Center, The Bodyguard

“And loving other people really does turn out, in the end, to be a genuine way of loving yourself.”
― Katherine Center, The Bodyguard

“People who want to be famous think it’s the same thing as being loved, but it’s not. Strangers can only ever love a version of you. People loving you for your best qualities is not the same as people loving you despite your worst.”
― Katherine Center, The Bodyguard

“That’s the thing I always love best about the human race: How we pick ourselves back up over and over and just keep on going.”
― Katherine Center, Things You Save in a Fire

“Every chance you take is a choice. A choice to decide who you are.”
― Katherine Center, The Bodyguard

“That's just life.
Tragedy really is a given.
There are endless human stories, but they all end the same way.
So it can't be where you're going that matters. It has to be how you get there.
That's what I've decided.
It's all about the details you notice. And the joys you savor. And the hope you refuse to give up on.
It's all about writing the very best story of your life.
Not just about how you live it—but how you choose to tell it.”
― Katherine Center, The Rom-Commers

“Because that’s all we can do: carry the sorrow when we have to, and absolutely savor the joy when we can. Life is always, always both.”
― Katherine Center, How to Walk Away

“If you play it right, your struggles might even lead you to your strengths.”
― Katherine Center, Things You Save in a Fire

“The more good things you look for, the more you find.”
― Katherine Center, Hello Stranger

“I’m at my very best when things are at their very worst.”
― Katherine Center, Things You Save in a Fire