You can try to take sorrow and make it into something enduring, meaningful and beautiful. I always feel guilty that this is my job, that I get to do this

Sometimes, running away means you're headed in the exact right direction.

I just finished Colson Whitehead's "The Underground Railroad," which I think is a work of genius.

I could hardly get a boy to look at me. All right, they'd look, they'd even take me out, but no one asked for a second date. I was too nasty, a real wise guy, and all the boys could tell what my rotten disposition was. Deep down, I wanted a commitment with a capital C. To get anywhere with me, a boy would have to sign his undying loyalty with his own blood.

He has the ability to catch someone by the way that he looks at her, and make her wish he would go on looking.

Being an outsider is the one thing we all have in common.

I dream of a love that even time will lie down and be still for.