Kathy Acker Quotes

As we look around, it's very clear that in this world people do outrageous things to one another all of the time. It's not that these qualities or actions make us bad people, but they bring tremendous suffering if we don't know how to work with them.

So many bad things happen in this world because people don't know how to express things.

Most of the time, we make discoveries about how difficult people are at the moment when the difficulties have actually hurt us; therefore, we are not likely to be forgiving or sympathetic.

Whenever I'm trying to understand people that I don't understand, or things in people or even in myself, I'll say, 'When did this negativity get here?' I try to think back to how I was raised to deal with things, and then consider how the person that I'm dealing with grew up.

I'm bad on passive aggression. I know that.

Well, a girlfriend once told me never to fight with anybody you don't love.

I have several times made a poor choice by avoiding a necessary confrontation.

My mom always said fighting with me as a kid was like going to court. I'm trying to realize that being right is not the most important thing.

Nowadays, if you are afraid of confrontation, you are not going to do very well.

People take things too personally - I don't. If someone says something about me, I let it go. But unfortunately, everyone isn't like that. So I'm trying to be more diplomatic - but people always want a headline from me!

Experience means conflict, our natures being what they are, and conflict means drama.

If you're sensitive, you will have a hard time with me.

It's kinda cool seeing people having real fights with people they really know.

When I have an argument with someone, even with someone I am not very close with, I can't sleep at night thinking about it. It's terrible. But I still manage speak out frankly because I have also been gifted with the ability to read people. I can sense when they start to get irritated with me, and then, I shift.

I don't know a single person in life that doesn't have conflict.

I think we learn the most from imperfect relationships - things like forgiveness and compassion.

I don't like getting people upset, so that's not my goal. But I like putting people in situations where how they respond says a lot about them.

The biggest lessons I've learned in life have probably come from a bad situation, from an angry situation, even if I wasn't the one who was angry.

Sometimes you get yourselves in situations where you don't realize people are actually testing you. People are actually provoking you.

It took me to be 33 to start to know how to fight.

I want to try to make difficult people somehow relatable.

Rod's not very good at confrontations; he would rather walk away and avoid something rather than go into it.

I'm not a person who likes to confront.

Conflict, when handled correctly, strengthens.

Parenting three children at the same time has helped me grow as a filmmaker. It taught me to be more empathetic and understand what people want from me.