I belong deeply to myself.

Light attracts light. But sometimes your light attracts moths and your warmth attracts parasites. Protect your space and energy

Later that night, I held an atlas on my lap, ran my fingers across the whole world, and whispered, ‘where does it hurt?’ It answered, everywhere, everywhere, everywhere.

Document the moments you feel most in love with yourself - what you're wearing, who you're around, what you're doing. Recreate and repeat.

My alone feels so good, I'll only have you if you're sweeter than my solitude.

It's not my responsibility to be beautiful. I'm not alive for that purpose. My existence is not about how desirable you find me.

Make peace with your body, it's not manmade, there are no flaws, there are no mistakes.

I’m overwhelmed. My biggest downfall is my brightest blessing, I feel too much, all the time. Ya Allah, if it’ll keep my heart soft, break my heart every day.

Don't assume, ask. Be kind. Tell the truth. Don't say anything you can't stand behind fully. Have integrity. Tell people how you feel.

Mother says there are locked rooms inside all women, kitchen of love, bedroom of grief, bathroom of apathy. Sometimes, the men, they come with keys, and sometimes the men, they come with hammers.

You are terrifying, and strange, and beautiful. Something not everyone knows how to love.

History never repeats itself, historians do.

We can learn so much from nature by simply observing how it works through a flower. The flower knows it is part of nature' we have forgotten that.

That woman must have been a husky in a previous life.

Leaders must see reality as it is, not as it ought to be.

Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises, for never intending to go beyond promise, it costs nothing.

The popcorn button on the microwave is a miraculous invention. More miraculous than even the microwave itself.

I moved to New York from California when I was 11, so initially I was seen as the California person for a while. I didn't feel like I was popular, but I did feel confident.

If you have a ton of counterpoints, complex harmony, all these tricky things going on, it makes things less accessible to people.

Mud and water and the stumps of trees. In every direction that was all there was. Bodies fell, but the trees died standing up.

I never wanted to be a literary writer. I wanted to be an entertainer. All I wanted was to give what a lot of writers had given me: a good time on a bad day.