She struggled with her sadness, but tried to conceal it, to divide it into smaller and smaller parts and scatter these in places she thought no one would find them.

I've reached the age where bruises are formed from failures within rather than accidents without.

...after all, who isn't a survivor from the wreck of childhood?

When at last I came upon the right book, the feeling was violent: it blew open a hole in me that made life more dangerous because I couldn't control what came through it.

The price we paid for the volumes of ourselves that we suffocated in the dark.

In life we sit at the table and refuse to eat, and in death we are eternally hungry.

There were many things they simply didn't talk about: between them, silence was not so much a form of evasion as a way for solitary people to exist in a family.

I read differently now, more painstakingly, knowing I am probably revisiting the books I love for the last time. (245)

Stop killing and wasting time. Get something done today

Change is uncomfortable and awkward at first. It has a ripping effect on those who refuse to go along with it. It is not fixed by crying, or worrying, or wallowing in self-pity and mental anguish.

Stay away from negative people. They have a problem for every solution.

Literature is one kind of aesthetic politics.

I have a mentor. I have... guides. I have a lot of guides. Not a lot, but people whose opinions I really respect and who I will turn to.

You teacher, teach your pupils freedom in thought and deed, honesty in thought and deed, and tolerance in thought and deed.

Being young and being first-round picks and everything, people look up to you and look for you to lead. It's something Brett and I are able to do, and we can use each other to help each other out.

O seeker! Rely on nothing until you want nothing.

There's no room for being a visionary in the studio system. It literally cannot exist.

I believe we can proactively choose to believe whatever we want instead of merely letting our beliefs coalesce as reactions to events.