It was impossible to convince someone to live for his own sake. But he often thought it would be a more effective treatment to make people feel more urgently the necessity of living for others.

He experienced the singular pleasure of watching people he loved fall in love with other people he loved.

What he knew, he knew from books, and books lied, they made things prettier.

. . . breathing slowly and rubbing his palm against his chest as if to soothe his heart.

There was something scary and anxiety-inducing about being in a space where nothing seemed to be forbidden to him, where everything was offered to him and nothing was asked in return

This isn't fair, he would think in those moments. This isn't friendship. It's something, but it's not friendship. He felt he had been hustled into a game of complicity, one he never intended to play.

And so I try to be kind to everything I see, and in everything I see, I see him.

He will be someone who is defined, first and always, by what he is missing.

My phone rang, and although it wasn't a sinister time of night, and although nothing had happened that I would later see as foreshadowing, I knew, I knew.

It's a good story, ' he said. He even grinned at me. 'I'll tell you.''Please, ' I said.And then he did.

He had never done it before, and so he had no real understanding of how slow, and sad, and difficult it was to end a friendship.

Nothing is permanent in my mysterious world, even my moments of belief - Jenifer

A problem is an opportunity to find a new way.

I know family comes first, but shouldn't that mean after breakfast?

I just wanted to do something that would freak people out. That's the best thing to do.

To be a good musician, you need to give people what they want, what they need.

When doctors describe pain as experiencing "discomfort," it's like saying Hiroshima experienced "urban renewal".

Life must be aromatic. There must be scent, somehow there must be some.

Conceptual writing is looking for that "Aha!" moment, when something so simple, right under our noses, is revealed as being awe- inspiring, profound, and transcendent.

When you realize that the baby's healthy and born, it's a release and you're so happy.

I take out little moments of silence before or after they sing, because I just love those weird pauses.