Top 40 Kacen Callender Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “No one else gets to define who I am. Only me.”

— Kacen Callender

2. “It’s easier, I think, to love someone you know won’t love you – to chase them, knowing they won’t feel the same way – than to love someone who might love you back. To risk loving each other and losing it all.”

— Kacen Callender

3. “I never hated you. I could never hate you.”

— Kacen Callender

4. “The longer I sit here and sketch, the better my art becomes; and it helps to look at the people around me, instead of seeing who I assume them to be.”

— Kacen Callender

5. “When someone hurts me, I either obsess over how to convince them I’m worthy of their love or obsess over how to destroy them.”

— Kacen Callender

6. “I didn’t even know so much water could be inside a person- like he was hiding an entire ocean beneath his skin.”

— Kacen Callender

7. “It’s almost like I was looking for the pain and the hurt, because it was easier to live with the idea that, even though I want love, I’m not the kind of person who deserves to be loved.”

— Kacen Callender

8. “It’s easier to accept hurt and pain, sometimes, than love and acceptance. It’s the real, loving relationships that can be the scariest.”

— Kacen Callender

9. “The way we lived then, that’s how we thought we would live forever. We not for one second thought everything could change in the amount of time it takes for a single heart to stop beating.”

— Kacen Callender

10. “But it took me a little longer to figure out that just because I love her, doesn’t mean it’s a good kind of love. It can be easier, sometimes, to choose to love someone you know won’t return your feelings. At least you know how that will end. It’s easier to accept hurt and pain, sometimes, than love and acceptance. It’s the real, loving relationships that can be the scariest” -Dad.”

— Kacen Callender

11. “I see at least one thing a day that makes me wonder if the straight people are all right.”

— Kacen Callender

12. “The idea of not being alone – of having someone who sees me, same way I see the things that no one else can see, makes me feel like I’m real. Like I deserve to exist on this planet alongside everyone else. That I get to be here because there’s someone else who wants me here too.”

— Kacen Callender

13. “He’s created his bubble of privilege, where no one is allowed but people like him, and because of that he doesn’t understand the world around him – doesn’t want to understand the world around him, because it’s too scary for him, too challenging. I start to feel a little sorry.”

— Kacen Callender

14. “I look at the moon, and I can’t help but think of everyone else on the planet who’s looking up at it, too, and how alone I am, even though we’re all here on the same Earth. I think about the fact that we should all be connected, but we’re not. We’re too preoccupied trying to hurt each other. It makes me think of how hypocritical I can be, and the mistakes I’ve made, and the ways I’ve hurt people, too.”

— Kacen Callender

15. “It’s easier, sometimes, to love when you know it’s a love you can’t have.”

— Kacen Callender

16. “But it was a tough lesson to learn, realizing that I couldn’t wait for her to decide she would love me again. It wasn’t healthy. If I fall in love again, it’ll be with a woman who loves me also – not someone who I have to convince to love me. It’s easier, I think, to love someone you know won’t love you – to chase them, knowing they won’t feel the same way – than to love someone who might love you back. To risk loving each other and losing it all” -Dad.”

— Kacen Callender

17. “Yeah. I don’t know, I always feel like I can’t figure out how to just stop watching and actually join.”

— Kacen Callender

18. “What does it feel like, to love someone so much that you’re willing to publicly bare your heart and soul with a black Sharpie?”

— Kacen Callender

19. “It’s easier to accept hurt and pain, sometimes, than love and acceptance.”

— Kacen Callender

20. “The straights say that we’ve got an agenda to turn people gay,” Marisol says, “but then will try to force toddlers on each other and say it’s so cute and they’re destined to get married. Seriously.”

— Kacen Callender

21. “Even if a creator made a character to be straight, they put those characters out into the world, right? So those characters are mine now. And I say that Steve and Bucky are gay as hell.”

— Kacen Callender

22. “I want to see what a new self-portrait would look like, after I’ve stood up for myself.”

— Kacen Callender

23. “It takes time. Grief takes a lot of forms, and it stays with you until the end of your days. Isn’t that right?”

— Kacen Callender

24. “Burst and swirl and fly around, their wings shining with all the colors of the universe.”

— Kacen Callender

25. “It can be easier, sometimes, to choose to love someone you know won’t return your feelings. At least you know how that will end. It’s easier to accept hurt and pain, sometimes, than love and acceptance. It’s the real, loving relationships that can be the scariest.”

— Kacen Callender

26. “Do you ever feel like you’re only ever watching? I ask Declan. Never really participating. Never really doing. Just always watching.”

— Kacen Callender

27. “I feel like I’ve been physically attacked. Like someone took control of who I am. Took that control away from me.”

— Kacen Callender

28. “You don’t need to die for each other to make this exciting. Just the fact that you’re here, together – that’s epic enough.”

— Kacen Callender

29. “Second of all,” he says, “it doesn’t matter what they think. It only matters what you think. Do you think you’re worthy of respect and love?” My mouth is still open, but now, no sound comes out. “I think you are,” he tells me, still watching me – totally unashamed to be staring.”

— Kacen Callender

30. “The question of if I’m doing what I’m meant to be doing in this lifetime. The thought sends a spike of fear through me.”

— Kacen Callender

31. “There’s much more in this life to fear than just spirits, and if I let fear rule my every move, I will become nothing more than a little ghost child myself. I want to be brave. I want to live the life I was given. So what if the spirits hear us call their names? Let them hear it.”

— Kacen Callender

32. “If the world was perfect, maybe we wouldn’t need labels. But the world isn’t perfect, and labels can really be a source of pride – especially when we’ve got to deal with so much crap. I’m really freaking proud to be a lesbian.”

— Kacen Callender

33. “Live. Live them for the people who didn’t get to enjoy being a teenager. For the people who never lived past being a teenager.”

— Kacen Callender

34. “It’s hot as hell – the kind of heat that sticks to your skin, your hair, your freaking eyeballs.”

— Kacen Callender

35. “My memories are peppered with little pieces of evidence that I’d always been trans, even before I knew what trans was.”

— Kacen Callender

36. “It feels good to me, to know I’m not alone. That someone else has felt the same way I’ve felt, experienced the same things I’ve experienced. It’s validating.”

— Kacen Callender

37. “I want to be in love. I’ve never, you know- felt the kind of passion great artists talk about. I want that. I want to feel that level of intensity.”

— Kacen Callender

38. “You’re not your grades. You’re not your test scores or your college application or even your portfolio.”

— Kacen Callender

39. “Just because you don’t understand my identity, doesn’t mean I’m not real. That I don’t exist.”

— Kacen Callender

40. “I’m not pretending to be a boy. Just because you haven’t evolved to realize gender identity doesn’t equal biology, doesn’t mean you get to say who I am and who I’m not. You don’t have that power. Only I have the power to say who I am.”

— Kacen Callender