I am conscious of trying to stretch the boundaries of non-fiction writing. It's always surprised me how little attention many non-fiction writers pay to the formal aspects of their work.

You normally have to be bashed about a bit by life to see the point of daffodils, sunsets and uneventful nice days.

Do you love me enough that I may be weak with you? Everyone loves strength, but do you love me for my weakness? That is the real test.

The challenge for a human now is to be more interesting to another than his or her smartphone.

There is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life.

Intimacy is the capacity to be rather weird with someone - and finding that that's ok with them.

Anyone who isn't embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn't learning enough.

Don't despair: despair suggests you are in total control and know what is coming. You don't - surrender to events with hope.

One of the better guarantors of ending up in a good relationship: an advanced capacity to be alone.

To one's enemies: "I hate myself more than you ever could.

The only people we can think of as normal are those we don't yet know very well.

If life has not changed or taught you anything, you haven't been living it right!

It's really weird how your life changes. Tonight I'm drinking water. Four years ago? Opium. Night and day, you know?

I like the idea of helping people help people.

It is hard to imagine a civilization without onions.

Used to be in the old days, only the pulp writers wrote like machines. Now everybody is expected to be literary John Henrys. So in that context someone like me is an anomaly.

My motivation is to be creative and have fun. You want to do something that keeps you on your toes the rest of your life and keeps you busy.

If I wasn't my age, I would turn a flip. I would do some cartwheels. That's how I feel.

Do the things you want to do; if you don't, the things which keep you alive inside you die and you turn into a ghost!

"In the woods we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life~~no disgrace, no calamity (leaving me my eyes), which nature cannot repair."

It's every girl's dream to be a cover girl!