“Friends.They aren’t any such thing as good friend or bad friend.Maybe there are just friend.People who stand by you when you're hurt and who helped you feel not so lonely.Maybe there are worth being scared for and hoping for and living for.Maybe worth dying for too.If that what has to be.No bad friends.Only people you want.Need to be with.People who build their houses in your heart.”

“Maybe there aren't any such things as good friends or bad friends - maybe there are just friends, people who stand by you when you're hurt and who help you feel not so lonely. Maybe they're always worth being scared for, and hoping for, and living for. Maybe worth dying for too, if that's what has to be. No good friends. No bad friends. Only people you want, need to be with; people who build their houses in your heart.”

“No good friends, no bad friends; only people you want, need to be with. People who build their houses in your heart.”

“Running a close second [as a writing lesson] was the realization that stopping a piece of work just because it's hard, either emotionally or imaginatively, is a bad idea. Sometimes you have to go on when you don't feel like it, and sometimes you're doing good work when it feels like all you're managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position.”

“If you can't laugh when things go bad--laugh and put on a little carnival--then you're either dead or wishing you were.”

“There was a beautiful feeling of calm in my groin, a sense of peace so remarkable it was almost ecstasy——anyone who' suffered bad pain and then recovered will know what I'm talking about.”

“One of the really bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary, looking for long words because you're maybe a little bit ashamed of your short ones. This is like dressing up a household pet in evening clothes. The pet is embarrassed and the person who committed this act of premeditated cuteness should be even more embarrassed.”