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Horrible things happen all our lives; we all experience loss and death and trauma. Usually, most people, I think, we just get on with it. We don't have a whole soliloquy in the middle of something.

When you have a traumatic event in your life, you change. You're not the same person you were, and you have to discover who you've become.

The shock of any trauma, I think changes your life. It's more acute in the beginning and after a little time you settle back to what you were. However it leaves an indelible mark on your psyche.

When you go through a traumatic event, there's a lot of shame that comes with that. A lot of loss of self-esteem. That can become debilitating.

Life is a series of avoiding horrible situations until ultimately you're dead. That's how I feel about things.

I don't think that trauma is an illusion; there is no question in my mind that circumstances beyond our control can shape and define us. But ultimately, we make choices about letting ourselves be defined by our pasts.

Life unravels the way it does, and it has an effect on you, but you have to take responsibility for dealing with it.

No day-to-day mishaps or indignities can really compromise your sense of self after you've survived a deep tragedy.

Trauma and pain and suffering can be the very thing that dislodges a person from themselves both in awful ways and larger ways that force one to reckon with one's own life.

Whatever terrible things may have happened to you, only one thing allows them to damage your core self, and that is continued belief in them.