Quotes

At the age of 19, the day after I graduated high school, I moved to a place where it snowed, and I became a massage therapist. With this job, all I needed were my hands and my massage table by my side and I could go anywhere. For the first time in my life, I felt free, independent, and completely in control of my life.

I want to live a fulfilling life.

When disease took my legs, I eventually realized I didn't need them to lead a full, empowering life.

I lost the life that I knew, and I really had to rethink my future and think about my core values and the things that I love, and my passion, and that's really what helped me move forward. Also, for me just being grateful for what I had in my life versus on focusing on what I was losing, that really helped as well.

I've never wanted sympathy votes in anything I do in my life.

I tried snowboarding at 14, and I absolutely fell in love with it. I snowboarded every day off I had, every weekend I had off of school, every holiday we had off from school, and it became a huge part of my life, not just what I love to do, but really just kind of who I was.

I was 19 years old, and I felt like I had the flu one day. Within 24 hours, I was in the hospital on life support, and I was given less than a 2 percent chance of living. It took five days for the doctors to find out that I had contracted bacterial meningitis.

It was challenging. It was never easy for me. My life changed suddenly, and I lost my health. I lost the body that I knew.

Of course, I was 19 years old, and I suddenly lost my legs. It was extremely traumatic at the time, but I'm so beyond that. I've done so much with my life.

I was on my death bed, and I remember hanging on to these words, 'Don't be scared. You are going to live an amazing life,' and I have.

I made a choice before I lost my legs that I was going to live the best life possible and that I wasn't going to let this slow me down - and that choice has kept me moving forward.

My dad gave me life twice. I thank him by using the strong body I now have.

I knew what I didn't want. I didn't want people to feel sorry for me. I didn't want people to see me as disabled. I wanted to live a life of adventure and stories.

I have so many moments. I am extremely passionate about life and at the same time, I'm always depressed, so everything's always happening at the same time for me. It's the best day and the worst day too.

I have always wanted a bunny and I'll always have a rabbit the rest of my life.

Families can be the most detrimental things to have in your life. They are sometimes the most poisonous relationships that people have. Sometimes family is the thing that keeps you from ever achieving what you want to achieve, and yet people hold it and hold it and grab it and try to fix it and twist it and turn it.

I'm just kind of taking whatever life gives me and hoping that I make the right decision.

I like any story that starts one place and really takes a huge journey to a whole new place; that people in their life want to take that journey. They want to be able to find things in their life that aren't working and work through them to a new place of change.

I think that life is about growth. You continue to grow and progress, hopefully.

Luck is in every part of China. Many Chinese stores and restaurants have the word 'luck' in their names. The idea is that, just by using the word 'luck' in names of things, you can attract more of it. I think that's true in my life as well. You attract luck because you go after it.

God, life changes faster than you think.

People think it's a terrible tragedy when somebody has Alzheimer's. But in my mother's case, it's different. My mother has been unhappy all her life. For the first time in her life, she's happy.

The forbidden things were a great influence on my life. I was forbidden from reading A Catcher in the Rye.

It's a luxury being a writer, because all you ever think about is life.

That was a wonderful period in my life. I mean, I didn't become an artist, but somebody let me do something I loved. What a luxury, to do something you love to do.