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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.

Shane Koyczan

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Shane Koyczan
Age: 48
Born: 1976
Born: May 22
Poet
Spoken Word Artist
People
Told
Seen
Place
Someone
Outcasts
Thought
Outcast
Ever
Maintained
Always
Despite
Like
Distance

More quotes by Shane Koyczan

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I accept any challenge, so challenge me
Shane Koyczan
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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.
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Sometimes becoming drug free has less to do with addiction and more to do with sanity.
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I've been shot down so many times, I get altitude sickness just from standing up for myself.
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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.
Shane Koyczan
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A question like “do you love me?” was an itch our doctors told us not to scratch.
Shane Koyczan
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This is my voice. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Shane Koyczan
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Look directly into every mirror. Realize our reflection is the first sentence to a story, and our story starts: We were here.
Shane Koyczan
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Don't tell me you're not beautiful. You're the kind of beautiful the blind would see if we could figure out some way to give them three seconds of sight.
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If you can't see anything beautiful about yourself, get a better mirror.
Shane Koyczan
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We so seldom understand each other. But if understanding is neither here nor there, and the universe is infinite, then understand that no matter where we go we will always be smack dab in the middle of nowhere. All we can do is share some piece of ourselves, and hope that it’s remembered. Hope that we meant something to someone
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My heart is a protest that I let rally against my ribs.
Shane Koyczan
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I sit before flowers hoping they will train me in the art of opening up I stand on mountain tops believing that avalanches will teach me to let go I know nothing but I am here to learn.
Shane Koyczan
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I've been told that people in the army do more by 7:00 am than I do in an entire day But if I wake at 6:59 am and turn to you to trace the outline of your lips with mine I will have done enough and killed no one in the process.
Shane Koyczan
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Don't tell me that [broken heartstrings] hurt less than a broken bone, that an ingrown life is something surgeons can cut away, that there's no way for it to metastasize - it does.
Shane Koyczan
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We grew up learning to cheer on the underdog because we see ourselves in them.
Shane Koyczan
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We come from the mentality, that rarely sees the horror in symmetry or the beauty in non-conformity
Shane Koyczan
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We're all shipwrecked on this idea that everything has to be explained.
Shane Koyczan
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To discover the thing you're brilliant at you first have to endure realizing all the things you're average at.
Shane Koyczan
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I you can't see anything beautiful about yourself, get a better mirror. Look a little closer, stare a little longer. Because there is something inside you that made you keep trying despite everyone who told you to quit. You built a cast around your broken heart and signed it yourself, you signed it THEY WERE WRONG.
Shane Koyczan