Explore Quotes by Shane Koyczan

For me, poetry was... the fastest way to express what I was feeling, what I was going through.

I make a good living doing what I do.

I got bullied a lot when I was a kid, and because of that I thought for the most part that I didn't really have a childhood - I had to grow up so quick and there was no real enjoyment in that for me.

Bullying, to me, starts very small around the kindergarten age where the first thing we learn is to call each other names. Something so small can be so long lasting in someone's life.

When something's painful, you just avoid it. Why bother dredging up the past if it's nothing but bad stuff?

Opera is the original marriage of words and music, and there's a theatre element, a dramatic element. It's right up my alley.

I guess initially I was amazed that somebody would see something within my work that they could really relate to, but the more it's happened, the more people have come forward, I've really realized that we're all kind of going through the same thing at the same time.

I think everybody gets bullied in their own way. Even athletes probably get it from their parents. To a degree everybody gets bullied.

For me, growing up and going to school and not seeing any anti-bullying posters and not hearing people talk about bullying was very desolate.

I hid my heart under my bed because my mother said if you're not careful someday somebody's going to break it. Take it from me, under the bed is not a good hiding spot.

Having seen TED from a distance, I always thought if ever there was a place for someone like me, the outcasts, people who maintained who they are despite being told what they were, it was TED.

When I was a kid, I used to think pork chops and karate chops were the same thing.

I will not stop. I will not slow down. I will not pull over to ask for directions. I will build the road that takes me where I want to be and I will drive, drive, drive. I will drive until the vehicle around me breaks down, falls apart and tumbles into useless debris... and then I will walk.

I accept that today may be imperfect... I accept that I may be as well. What I don't accept is that imperfection should be the crutch I use to excuse myself from participating in joy.

I've been shot down so many times, I get altitude sickness just from standing up for myself.

Scrape the grey sky clean. Realize every grey cloud is a smoke screen to blind us from the truth, and the truth is whether we see them or not the sun and moon are still there, and always there is light.

Maybe the best we can hope for is that those we leave behind find comfort in knowing, that we’re born out of love, and not science. That biology explains the how, but love explains the why

If your heart is broken, make art with the pieces.

You, me, this city, this country, we will always have a choice.When you stand up to be counted, tell the world, THIS IS MY VOICE. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

My experiences with violence in schools still echo throughout my life but standing to face the problem has helped me in immeasurable ways.

Effort is the siamese twin of success