“I suppose that a lifetime spent hiding one's erotic truth could have a cumulative renunciatory effect. Sexual shame is in itself a kind of death.”

“But how could he admire Joyce’s lengthy, libidinal ‘yes’ so fervently and end up saying ‘no’ to his own life? I suppose that a lifetime spent hiding one’s erotic truth could have a cumulative renunciatory effect. Sexual shame is in itself a kind of death.”

“Psychoanalytic insight, Miller seems to suggest, is itself a pathological symptom.”

“What would happen if we spoke the truth?”

“I am not ultimately interested in writing fiction. I can't make things up. Or rather, I can only make things up about things that have already happened.”

“If it weren't for the unconventionality of my desires, my mind might never have been forced to reckon with my body.”

“It was not a triumphal return. Home, as I had known it, was gone.”