Quotes By Author: Charlotte Eriksson

“Being a person who pushes himself to his or her own limits in order to become as great as he or she can possibly be means being a person who is constantly faced with some kind of fear. May it be mental or physical, may you be an athlete or a writer, YOU are facing fear, every single day, by doing something your mind or body never did before. But by overcoming that fear you take one step higher on the ladder, and the goal is to take those steps every single day.”

“How does one know you’ve “made it”?You no longer feel like you have anything to prove to anyone. You have no regrets or resentments from the past, anger that you’re working from. No people you want revenge on or songs you want to sing in order to finally speak your mind. Instead, you work from a place of wanting to do the work only, without any attachment to the outcome.”

“Growing up takes time and effort.”

“I know there are days when even one single positive thought feels like too much effort, but you must develop an unconditional love for life. You must never lose your childish curiosity for the possibilities in every single day. Who you can be, what you can see, what you can feel and where it can lead you. Be in love with your life, everything about it. The sadness and the joys, the struggles and the lessons, your flaws and strengths, what you lose and what you gain.”

“Great growth comes from loneliness. You have time to develop, dwell in your own mind and go a bit mad. All the great people are a bit mad. That’s good to remember. Don’t escape it. Great growth comes from time spent in foreign lands, watching foreign people with foreign cultures. It makes you forget about your own land and race and town for a while. Great growth also comes from rooting yourself into one place from time to time. Unpack your bags, get a nice bed, a bookshelf, some friends. Learn to show up, keep in touch, stick around. Growth comes in all sorts of forms and shapes, everywhere at all times, and it’s yours to take and consume. Do what ought to be done. Here and now, to get you somewhere — anywhere.”

“I am the creator of my very own self and I intend to treat me like my greatest masterpiece.”

“You must be a myth that your lover can’t graspand you must chase the moon like a wolf in the night, as if it will show you something only you can understand. Everything you do is a ritual that can mean something more and you must connect and create bonds with the spirits both outer and inner. Seek the strange and mysterious, otherworldly explanations for yourself and things around. There is always more. Always more.Nothing is ordinary,and you must make love to him like his touch is your salvation.You must dare to love and lose and hear your heart break into a million little pieces, glittering like diamonds in the night.Don’t run into hiding when the rain hits us like planets shot down to see who wants to survivethe mostfor you want to survive the mostand you must not hide from madness.You must love and live and write like you’re obsessed and possessed. Go mad for what you believe in.”

“There are things that will happen to you and there is nothing you can do about this. Isn’t it exciting beyond belief?”

“You become a house where the wind blows straight through, because no one bothers the crack in the window or lock on the door, and you’re the house where people come and go as they please, because you’re simply too unimpressed to care. You let people in who you really shouldn’t let in, and you let them walk around for a while, use your bed and use your books, and await the day when they simply get bored and leave. You’re still not bothered, though you knew they shouldn’t have been let in in the first place, but still you just sit there, apathetic like a beggar in the desert.”

“I never have time to write anymore. And when I do I only write about how I never have time. It’s work and it’s money and I’ve written more lists than songs lately. I stay up all night to do all these things I need to do, be all these things I want to be, playing with shadows in the darkness that shouldn’t be able to exist. Empty bottles and cigarettes while watching the sunrise, why do I complain? I have it all, everything I ever asked for.”

“It’s 4am again and I’m just getting started. People are boring and I want to burn with excitement or anger and bleed, bleed through my words. I want to get all fucked up and write real and raw and ugly and beautifully. I bet you’re sleeping safe and calm, and you can stay there, it’s safer there, and you wouldn’t stand one night on this journey my mind wanders off to every night you close your eyes. I’ll stay here one day and I will never come down. I promise I can fly before I hit the ground. It doesn’t even hurt anymore. I swear, it doesn’t hurt.”

“So I died many times that year.In the cold, in the storm, on the run or on the drunk for my heart did not want to beatbut kept on beating anywayand my pain was as real as real can be,and I tried to learn and deal and run and feelbut nothing really worked.I built a comfortable home in my sorrow and settled into a quiet living. No sparks or grand gestures, just a simple daily hymn to comfort. The leaves fell off the trees and coloured this city in all kinds of pretty, and some days that was enough to make me smile at least a little bit, within.”

“Everything changed when I learned to honour my body instead of fighting it. When I learned to take care of it, like a precious castle to protect this weary heart. To stop harming it, punishing it for looking like this or that, feeling like this or that. I don’t look like they all told me I had to, but I’m healthy and strong and vital. That is enough.”

“No one will come and save you. No one will come riding on a white horse and take all your worries away. You have to save yourself, little by little, day by day. Build yourself a home. Nurture your body. Find something to work on. Something that makes you excited, something you want to learn. Get yourself some books and learn them by heart. Get to know the author, where he grew up, what books he read himself. Take yourself out for dinner. Dress up for no one but you and simply feel nice. It’s a lovely feeling, to feel pretty. You don’t need anyone to confirm it.I get so goddamn lonely and sad and filled with regrets some days, but I’m learning to breathe deep through it and keep walking. I’m learning to make things nice for myself. Slowly building myself a home with things I like. Colours that calm me down, a plan to follow when things turn dark. A few people I try to treat right, even though I don’t sometimes, but it’s my intention to do so. I’m learning. I’m learning to make things nice for myself. I’m learning to save myself. I’m trying, as I always will.”

“So find your own combination of things to learn and see and be passionate about. Learn from everyone but be your own guidance, and you will find a red-hot feeling in your chest each night, eager for the possibilities of a new day. No one knows your heart as well as you do.”