“How can I stand before you in silent symbols with open palms?”

“I’ve learned to fall like the BJJ player, to protect the body through controlling the distribution of force by slapping the mat with hands open. With hands open. Hands open. Open. O Pen.”

“The storm before the calm.”

“If pain is a pot of boiling water, humor can be the rising steam.”

“I didn’t want anybody seeing my fire until I burned them with it.”

“In The Land of Poetry and Fighting, Efficiency rules the throne. I try to live here, so I shave my head because hair is dead and dead is inefficient.”

“In other words, I tasted a different drug. A drug called progress.”