“Breaking free, or not, is usually determined by whether you want to get somewhere slowly or nowhere fast.”

“We all want to be stars. The idea of being revered and envied must be encoded somewhere deep in our DNA. So must the desire to revere and envy others we imagine to be better, more accepted, and more popular than we are. The only problem is that the most necessary qualities required to be a celebrity -- self-absorption, egomania, shamelessness -- are the least attractive in a friend.”

“If you want sympathy, look for a friend, but if you want honesty, an enemy might be the best friend you ever had.”

“If you expect nothing, you can never be disappointed.Apart from a few starry-eyed poets or monks living on a mountaintop somewhere, however, we all have expectations. We not only have them, we need them. They fuel our dreams, our hopes, and our lives like some super-caffeinated energy drink.”

“You can only get outside yourself by looking inside.”

“Some people live their lives as if each day will be their last. Some approach love the same way, in a desperate attempt to outrun the tiny changesor huge ones that are always looming on each of our horizons. But the sense of urgency that comes from wanting to experience life and love to thefullest can force decisions that are not always in your best interests or anyone else's, for that matter. In fact, sometimes facing the consequences ofyour choices can be even worse than death. You may live only once, but you don't necessarily want it to feel like forever.”

“We are often so distracted by the internal war between what we want to do and what we have to do that we overlook what we need to do.”