When I was little, my father used to sell guns and ammo at a sporting goods store, but I always told everyone he was an arms dealer, because it sounded more exciting.

In short? It is exhausting being me. Pretending to be normal is draining and requires amazing amounts of energy and Xanax.

Because you are defined not by life's imperfect moments, but by your reaction to them. And because there is joy in embracing - rather than running from - the utter absurdity of life.

[On acupuncture:] The needles are small and won't hurt at all. In fact, they'll feel good. Ha, ha! Just kidding. They feel like needles. Because they are.

Every time I get scared or feel like I'm not going to be good enough at something, I say that mantra to myself. "Pretend you're good at it."

When Hailey was born my first thought was that I needed a drink and that hospitals should have bars in them.

So many of us feel like we're misfits until we finally find our tribe - the other people who are are strange in the same way - and suddenly everything clicks.

It’s amazing how much you’re missing in a depressive state until you start to come out on the other side. It’s like breathing again after being underwater for far too long.

But really, what else are you going to talk about in line at the liquor store? Childhood trauma seems like the natural choice, since it’s the reason why most of us are in line there to begin with.

If you enjoyed high school, you were probably a psychopath or a cheerleader. Or possibly both.

High School Is Life’s Way of Giving You a Record Low to Judge the Rest of Your Life By)

The purpose of literature is to turn blood into ink.

The sun can shine, and it can burn. You can shine your love with a softer power than the sun.

The situation was different in the jungle. Every inch of ground had to be earned, and was done so through much exertion with the blade.

The only person you can fiercely hate is the person you have loved once fiercely, with your whole heart.

Be genuinely happy for other people's success, and always use their success stories to boost your level of will to succeed.

Teaching at university isn't like teaching in an art school.

Im a regular dude from Kansas who grew up with pigs and cows.

The impulse to mar and to destroy is as ancient and almost as nearly universal as the impulse to create. The one is an easier way than the other of demonstrating power.

For some of us, the less said about the way we do things the better.

It was impossible to imagine the aloof, dignified, powerful High Lord living as, of all things, a slave.