Ingrid Betancourt Quotes

"Reconciliation is a decision that you take in your heart."

"The relationship with time changes when you're captive."

"We can't continue with a justice of vengeance. Peace will require us to accept a certain degree of impunity; it's inevitable."

"More than a victim, I am a survivor of a dehumanization process."

"In a kidnapping, you leave behind a lot of your baggage, like arrogance and stubbornness."

"I never say no to an ice cream."

"France is my home; you are my family. I am carrying all of you in my heart."

"Like in every peace process, and especially in Colombia, there all kinds of problems that will come through. Not only is the process by itself very complicated but it has lots of underground complications."

"I continue to aspire to serve Colombia as president."

"I didn't want to be a number. I didn't want to be an object."

"I don't want to be submerged by depression."

"It's not easy to talk about things that are still hurting."

"The only thing I've settled in my mind is that I want to forgive, and forgiveness comes with forgetting."

"I have to forget in order to find peace in my soul and be able to forgive."

"I love Colombia's military. I love my country."

"I continue with the illusion of serving Colombia. Only God knows if it were to be from the presidency."

"When you have a chain around your neck, you have to keep your head down and try to accept your fate without succumbing entirely to humiliation, without forgetting who you are."

"During my captivity, I felt abandoned by everyone apart from my family and supporters, because there was no part of the political spectrum that would want me released."

"I carry the voices of all my family within me, and they were with me there in the jungle."

"After six years without seeing one, I love just seeing a smile - every smile I see gives me hope."

"I owe everything to France."

"I have shed many tears of pain and indignation."

"We have to be aware of our fragilities as human beings - when we see cruelty, to understand that in certain conditions, we could be cruel, too."

"You don't master your fear. You're not able to say, 'I'm not going to be scared.' But what you can do is say, 'OK, I'm very very scared, but I have to do this and this and this.'"

"I want to tell President Sarkozy - and through him, all the French people - that they were our support, our light."

"The voice of the Holy Father was like a light."

"I want to serve my country, but not necessarily in the political arena."

"I was in chains all the time, 24 hours a day, for three years. I tried to wear those chains with dignity, even if I felt that it was unbearable."

"You need tremendous spirituality to stop yourself falling into the abyss."

"I know that I have to give testimony about all the things I lived, but I need time."