When I was young I felt really overwhelmed and confused by the desire not to end up in an office, doing something I didn't believe in.

Be like snow - cold, but beautiful.

Be Young, Be Dope, Be Proud.

I am nostalgic of an era I never knew.

What other people think of me is none of my business. Sometimes, it hurts my feelings, but I have to just keep going.

No matter how many people give me advice, I am going to do what my heart tells me to do

Being brave means knowing that when you fail, you don't fail forever.

They judge me like a picture book, by the colors, like they forgot to read.

Will you still love me when I'm no longer young and beautiful? Will you still love me when I've got nothing but my aching soul?

Sometimes I wish I was a beautiful machine so I could resist your kiss and not cry when you're mean.

In New York I pretty much live in diners - I order French Fries, Diet Coke floats and lots of coffee.

Don’t write what you know—what you know may bore you, and thus bore your readers. Write about what interests you—and interests you deeply—and your readers will catch fire at your words.

I'm felt I was writing about love and desire and community and belonging and grief and a whole host of other issues. But race is never far from the surface.

On my best day, I am a seven-point-seven. I could be a hard eight if I felt great. If I went on a good run and had on my best pair of jeans, I could feel right on the money.

Music is the effort we make to explain to ourselves how our brains work. We listen to Bach transfixed because this is listening to a human mind.

We find not much in ourselves to admire, we are always privately wanting to be like somebody else. If everybody was satisfied with himself, there would be no heroes

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup-they all die. So do we.

Nothing in human nature is so God-like as the disposition to do good to our fellow-creatures.

I think if you're going to show a true representation of any one life, it can't be about any one thing. I try to see more of a full picture, with the romance just a single part.

Shall I show you the door...or would you rather go out through the wall?" - Maris

I discovered that the heart is a breakable thing, but also discovered my capacity to love another person.