“So much of control is not authoritative action but mindful waiting.”

“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.”

“We were of thirteen minds, like a tree, in which there is one Red-tail and eleven squirrel parts.”

“We give up our backs and allow religious myths to apply the rear naked choke to our minds.”

“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.”

“Stories do not change, only the lives they live in do.”

“The words he said, too, must be human enough to bleed.”