Children's stories force logic upon the gruesome facts of our lives. They mirror our troubles and submit them to a chain of causality.

The frustration of being marginalized often gets misdirected at the most visible members of one's own community, because they are more accessible than the real agents of marginalization.

Abandonment by a lover won't kill us. But it awakens the parts of us that remember when it could.

It has been my experience that the people I judge most harshly are the ones in whom I recognize some part of myself.

Anyone who makes a life of what they love is a hero to me, and it's important for those people to be visible in every kind of life, every kind of love, every kind of work.

New York at night, from its bridges, is a miracle. When I first came to the city, it took all my fantasies and set them on fire, turned them into flickering constellations of light.

You don't have to write like David Foster Wallace or James Baldwin or Maggie Nelson - indeed, you shouldn't. Those writers are doing it better than you ever could.

I can still discern people's weaknesses, but it doesn't make me want to exploit them; it makes me want to hug them.

Torch songs are confessions. They are an expression of feeling that cannot be concealed or contained or minimized. They are marked by anguish, yes, but also by yielding.

The craft work becomes a mediator between me and my secrets, between me and the listener.

Letting go of the cozy stories you've been carrying around is devastating. But there's more room for new stuff after you do it.

Bettering the lives of others is the role of a person with a servant’s heart.

A worthy legacy is the irrevocable consequence of dreaming.

In a crisis, don't hide behind anything or anybody. They're going to find you anyway.

Live like the Kennedy's, above the law.

If I sit and daydream, the images rush by like a succession of colored slides.

Elusive dreams and vague desires fanned to fiery needs by deadly deeds of falling empires.

True buoyant leaders can never communicate in percentage points, or charts and figures. First and foremost, they must be storytellers, communicating with their hearts, not heads.

Medicine makes people ill, mathematics make them sad and theology makes them sinful.

I'm going to the Super Bowl again.

Criticism should be a casual conversation.