She'd lost two more pounds. A picture of the models she'd cut out of the magazine flashed through Kessa's mind. And the winner is... seventy-three!

She began to be reassured by these pains, tangible symbols of her success in becoming thinner than anyone else. Her only identity was being "the skinniest." She had to feel it.

Self-mutilation is a frightening barrier that keeps us from seeing a person who is lost, in pain, and in desperate need of help.

Repetition brings familiarity, and familiarity is the opposite of the unknown.

How silly people were to eat. They thought they needed food for energy, but they didn't. Energy came from will, from self-control.

Soon I'll be thinner than all of you, she swore to herself. And then I'll be the winner. The thinner is the winner.

Africa is not just about where you are born. For me, Africa is the whole continent; from south to north, to east to west.

I'm not in favor of just taking short-term isolated situations and depleting our resources to keep our climate just the way it is today.

The God we serve will make His presence known, when you praise

If you get bored with nothing to do, you are not a writer ... We are in the business of reproducing reality from nothing. We are the biggest liars in the world, seeking truth.

The shadows are deepening all around us. Now is the time when we must begin to see our world and ourselves in a different way.

I played guitar when I was a kid, a little bit. I can tool around with a guitar, but I'm certainly not a musician.

There was nothing, nothing to depend on. And why was I surprised?

Being a mathematician is a bit like being a manic depressive: you spend your life alternating between giddy elation and black despair.

A thug is someone who stands on his own. He lives by the decisions he makes and accepts the consequences. A thug is comfortable in his own skin. I wear mine like a glove.