“Picture yourself sitting in the middle of a junkyard, and there is light all around you. That’s a good one.”

“Have you met my boyfriend? He thinks running around in the middle of the night pretending he’s an elf is a good time. If that’s not fucked up, I don’t know what is.”

“It starts with this: put your desk in the corner, and every time you sit down there to write, remind yourself why it isn't in the middle of the room. Life isn't a support system for art. It's the other way around.”

“When you sit right down in the middle of yourself you're gonna wanna have a comfortable chair.”

“But perhaps this is all to the good. Perhaps it’s best to live with the possibility that around any corner, at any time, may come the person who reminds you of your own capacity to surprise yourself, to put at risk everything that’s dear to you. Who reminds you of the distances we have to bridge to begin to know anything about one another. Who reminds you that what seems to be—even about yourself—may not be. That like him, you need to be forgiven.”

“One day you will blink and the haze will dissipate. You'�ll discover that what once defined you has wiltedinto graying hair and wrinkled skin. Frantic, you�ll glance around yourself, in hopes of finding those youswore adored you, but all you will find is empty picture frames.”