Today, October 8th, 2013 is the first anniversary of the release of Never Give in to Fear: Laughing All the Way Up from Rock Bottom, a gripping and humorous memoir that tells my story: a sometimes shocking, always genuine account of survival against all odds, and a celebration of recovery. Since its release, the book has earned critical acclaim and a National Indie Excellence Award in the category of addiction and recovery.
To commemorate this occasion, I’m sharing some quotes about the power of sharing your story:
“Those who do not have power over the story that dominates their lives, the power to retell it, rethink it, deconstruct it, joke about it, and change it as times change, truly are powerless, because they cannot think new thoughts.” — Salman Rushdie
“Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact.” — Robert McKee
“The book which the reader now holds in his hands, from one end to the other, as a whole and in its details, whatever gaps, exceptions, or weaknesses it may contain, treats of the advance from evil to good, from injustice to justice, from falsity to truth, from darkness to daylight, from blind appetite to conscience, from decay to life, from bestiality to duty, from Hell to Heaven, from limbo to God. Matter itself is the starting-point, and the point of arrival is the soul. Hydra at the beginning, an angel at the end.” — Victor Hugo
“Of course that is not the whole story, but that is the way with stories; we make them what we will. It’s a way of explaining the universe while leaving the universe unexplained, it’s a way of keeping it all alive, not boxing it into time.” — Jeannette Winterson, OBE