“Enjoying life as it happens one day at a time.”

“Everyday above ground is a Good Day”

“You have to fight for what you want in life. You can't live your life in the shadow of your brothers or sisters or parents; you have to live your life, and make it a good life, because you only have one.”

“Books should confuse. Literature abhors the typical. Literature flows to the particular, the mundane, the greasiness of paper, the taste of warm beer, the smell of onion or quince. Auden has a line: "Ports have names they call the sea." Just so will literature describe life familiarly, regionally, in terms life is accustomed to use -- high or low matters not. Literature cannot by this impulse betray the grandeur of its subject -- there is only one subject: What it feels like to be alive. Nothing is irrelevant. Nothing is typical.”

“Sometimes there are still days when I wake up and wonder if this has actually happened, or if it’s been one long dream.”

“There are always going to be some people in life who disappoint you and don't believe in you like you hoped they would, and you have to find the strength to rise about it and realize that they're wrong. You're still a worthy person whether they thing so or not. If there's no one else to tell it to you, then tell it to yourself.”

“The drama of the essay is the way the public life intersects with my personal and private life. It's in that intersection that I find the energy of the essay.”