A lot of people who are depressed, I think, are suffering from blocked creativity.

By coming out to ourselves, we free up the energy we spent keeping a part of ourselves hidden.

Prejudice usually can't survive close contact with the people who are supposed to be so despicable, which is why the propagandists for hate always preach separation.

If you live in a society that wishes you didn't exist, anything you do to make yourself happy disrupts its attempts to wipe you out, or at the very least, make you invisible.

When you're hurting another person, past a certain point you're cracking them open and whatever's inside them gets all over you. So you should kinda check out whether you want that to happen.

Responsibility without power is a really bad deal.

SM is an art. Doing it well requires more than a bag full of expensive whips and exotic electrical toys, a closet full of fetish clothes, or a basement filled with bondage furniture.

If your relationship with someone is based on your desire for them to change into something radically different, there's no real closeness there, no real communication.

This is one of the reasons we need to transition: people can't validate an identity they can't see.

The scars are a way of reminding me that the past is real. They are honorable.

When it comes to your inner critic, my advice is to not take advice from someone who doesn't like you. That's like returning to the perpetrator for healing after you've been abused.

A man is only as good as what he loves.

A world without books would be a world not worth living in.

I'm shadowboxing in a match the shadow is always going to win. (as a young man battling his deceased brother's heroic legacy)

The Republican party does have a lot of work to do. But changing our principles is not a winning strategy. We need to modernize, not moderate.

What is jazz? It, It's almost like asking, What is French? Jazz is a musical language. It's a musical dialect that actually embodies the spirit of America.

I like the way Mahler wandered about in his music and still retained his passion. He must have looked like an earthquake walking down the street.

Choosers will be beggars if the begging's not their choosing.

Why should I care? I have all the money in the world.

Trauma, and certain important experiences, can imprint on us at a genetic level.

I conduct business, not dependent of public sentiment, but according to the rules of fair business.