“anyone who has crammed for a school exam knows how easy it is to misquote in a showdown.”

“I was surprised, as always, by how easy the act of leaving was, and how good it felt. The world was suddenly rich with possibility.”

“Suddenly this defeat.This rain.The blues gone grayAnd the browns gone grayAnd yellowA terrible amber.In the cold streetsYour warm body.In whatever roomYour warm body.Among all the peopleYour absenceThe people who are alwaysNot you.I have been easy with treesToo long.Too familiar with mountains.Joy has been a habit.NowSuddenlyThis rain.”

“Suddenly Adam (Upton) hated death just as much as he hated life, and now he had absolutely no idea how to unsolve that equation.-- From my upcoming novel "Streaks of Blue: How the Angels of Newtown Inspired One Girl to Save Her School.”

“Someone once said anyone can be great under rosy circumstances, but the true test of character is measured by how well a person makes decisions during difficult times.”

“How do you tell your mom you're following your dream when it's the one that warned you to befriend a psychotic boy before he shoots up your school?-- from the upcoming "Streaks of Blue”

“One fast move or I'm gone,' I realize, gone the way of the last three years of drunken hopelessness which is a physical and spiritual and metaphysical hopelessness you can't learn in school no matter how many books on existentialism or pessimisn you read, or how many jugs of vision-producing Ayahuasca drink, or Mescaline take, or Peyote goop up with -”