Maybe feeling of presence in my body is why I've always sought out extreme experiences; it forces me to be in a moment, to face the fact of my existing in that particular moment, in my body.

The frustration of being marginalized often gets misdirected at the most visible members of one's own community, because they are more accessible than the real agents of marginalization.

Abandonment by a lover won't kill us. But it awakens the parts of us that remember when it could.

It has been my experience that the people I judge most harshly are the ones in whom I recognize some part of myself.

Anyone who makes a life of what they love is a hero to me, and it's important for those people to be visible in every kind of life, every kind of love, every kind of work.

New York at night, from its bridges, is a miracle. When I first came to the city, it took all my fantasies and set them on fire, turned them into flickering constellations of light.

You don't have to write like David Foster Wallace or James Baldwin or Maggie Nelson - indeed, you shouldn't. Those writers are doing it better than you ever could.

I can still discern people's weaknesses, but it doesn't make me want to exploit them; it makes me want to hug them.

Torch songs are confessions. They are an expression of feeling that cannot be concealed or contained or minimized. They are marked by anguish, yes, but also by yielding.

The craft work becomes a mediator between me and my secrets, between me and the listener.

Letting go of the cozy stories you've been carrying around is devastating. But there's more room for new stuff after you do it.

I don’t have a photograph, but you can have my footprints. They’re upstairs in my socks.

How one walks through the world, the endless small adjustments of balance, is affected by the shifting weights of beautiful things.

In the words of a pastor friend, "Christianity is less about holding on to God and more about God holding on to you.

To be a man is to bring together that which you should be and that which you are. Deception is darkness.

The principles we live by in business and in social life are the most important part of happiness.

To have and to want more that is life.

Nearly all black and brown skins are beautiful, but a beautiful white skin is rare.

I also feel I'm a positive role model by not putting my education on hold.

Canadian money is also called the loony. How can you take an economic crisis seriously?

Everybody sacrifices something in an attempt to reach what they think society wants.