Indeed, at times it's best to shut up.

The prospect of a long day at the beach makes me panic. There is no harder work I can think of than taking myself off to somewhere pleasant, where I am forced to stay for hours and 'have fun'.

Hedonism can be a rational response to a difficult life.

The essay must be artistically rendered: You must keep the reader engaged, whether with wit, conflict, mischief, and/or yes, with honesty.

Until people see poetry as springing from all of life, they will isolate it in a creativity corner and treat it like a mascot.

Most good essays are conversations with yourself - not just your decided thoughts but your dilemmas.

The trick is to realize that one is not important, except insofar as one’s example can serve to elucidate a more widespread human trait and make readers feel a little less lonely and freakish.

A personal essay often includes some or a lot of personal confession. That makes the reader feel less lonely in their confusion and darkness.

Have fun writing, because it enhances both the writer's and reader's experience.

Confession makes you a more trustworthy narrator.

In new work, we need to see the shadow, however faint, of previous literary effort.

Quitters always believe the lies they tell themselves because delusion is easier to live with than the reality that they settled for an easier path.

Having a vested interest in other souls unconditionally creates a ripple effect that produces miracles in the lives of those around us.

The little weasel ripped all the buttons off my couch.Ivan Petrovsky, pg 350

The reason most of the children are having problems in any inner-city neighborhood is because they don't see enough positive role models in their own environment.

Too strong for that Bron Bron.

You know, I'd get a tattoo with your name on it. Only, I want you to have the freedom to change your name if you want to.

I'm a frotteur, someone who likes to rub words in his hand, to turn them around and feel them, to wonder if that really is the best word possible.

It’s time we framed every question - every issue -- not in terms of what’s in it for ‘me,’ but what’s in it for all of us?

Growing up in the fifties and sixties, I can only remember knowing one child, ever, whose parents got a divorce, and hardly any whose mother "worked" at anything besides raising her children.

Reggae is music of love. It has joy and pain, but it feels good.