Rupi Kaur Quotes

Rupi Kaur

Profession : Poet

Birth : October 5, 1992

You have to really understand that although certain memories or stories make you sad, you are not sad. Pull yourself out from that emotion and remember that.

Rupi Kaur

My parents didn't allow me to do all the things the cool kids could do. I was quiet, reserved, and at some points, taken complete advantage of simply because of my sex and gender. For a while, in high school, I was so deep into self-hate.

Rupi Kaur

Really, at the end of the day, the only thing you can control is yourself; the only person you can truly educate is yourself. You have to redefine what beauty is to you so you can't be affected by what people are saying.

Rupi Kaur

Feeling 'ugly' or 'unattractive' seeps into your life like poison, and it affects everything. Feeling worthless does the same. We internalise these limitations, and it takes an internal revolution to get rid of them.

Rupi Kaur

When things get better, there's a swing to the pendulum where things get worse for others.

Rupi Kaur

'You're beautiful' was the compliment I craved so much. I didn't care if people called me smart or innovative - it was the number-one compliment I gave out to other women hoping it was given back to me. I heard people saying it to my best friends. It was the one I wanted to hear more than anything else.

Rupi Kaur

It was tough to cope with the pressure of having to talk about menstruation, but now with 'Newsweek' splashing it as the cover story, I thing the point I wished to make has found its mark.

Rupi Kaur

There was no market for poetry about trauma, abuse, loss, love, and healing through the lens of a Punjabi-Sikh immigrant woman.

Rupi Kaur

I won the speech competition in class, and I always say this was my first 'spoken word performance.' It was the first time I got on stage and recited something. I fell in love with the stage at the age of 12.

Rupi Kaur

I was born in India, and we came from a poor family and lived in a rural village. My dad came over to Canada as a refugee, and years later, we were able to join him.

Rupi Kaur

I was always writing for myself. I wrote what I needed to write and hear - that's what makes it powerful.

Rupi Kaur

I did not start out thinking I'm going to become a feminist poet. It was a tag I was given.

Rupi Kaur

I always wrote stories, but I do remember a particular moment in middle school where I became passionate about essay writing.

Rupi Kaur

In high school, I started saving up to get a nose job, which is so ridiculous. I had this job at Tim Hortons, and I was trying to save up $10,000 for a nose job.

Rupi Kaur

I like B.C. because it's so beautiful, but I think Toronto's the greatest place because every corner of the world is here.

Rupi Kaur

I feel social media can be very distracting, unhealthy, and harmful to one's self-confidence. I don't even log on to it on my phone except when I post something on Instagram.

Rupi Kaur

I've been thinking a lot about the journey of my parents - just seeing the sacrifices they've made to allow me to do what I do. How much of a difference their sacrifices have made through the generations.

Rupi Kaur

My heart is beating, and I'm breathing, and nothing anybody has ever done has changed that.

Rupi Kaur

I grew up thinking I was going to change the world, but not because I was treated like a special snowflake. It's a silly label. People are starving. We need to feed them. That's the end of the conversation.

Rupi Kaur

I'm a brown girl from a Punjabi pind raised in Toronto. I don't expect literary critics and purists to understand the nuances of my experiences, and the experiences of the people around me... And my tradition holds that there is a magic in the written word. So how I write, what I write of, and why I write all comes naturally.

Rupi Kaur