I love to communicate, and I love music. That's why I always thought not being able to hear would be a tragedy.

I hated being depressed, but it was also in depression that I learned my own acreage, the full extent of my soul.

I had known a couple of people who had died, but the loss of my mother contained something of the profoundly unknowable.

I believe that organized religion is an ornament to the truth, and that aesthetics are part of its power.

While people argue with one another about the specifics of Freud's work and blame him for the prejudices of his time, they overlook the fundamental truth of his writing, his grand humility: that we frequently do not know our own motivations in life and are prisoners to what we cannot understand. We can recognize only a small fragment of our own, and an even smaller fragment of anyone else's, impetus.

I understand perfectly well why the Catholic Church preaches against abortion. But it shouldn't be the purpose of the Catholic Church to prevent non-Catholics from having abortions if they feel that abortions are morally acceptable. They can certainly only argue for what they believe to be right in the court of public opinion and try to persuade people.

Psychologically, I will not have to seek far if I decide to kill myself, because in my mind and heart I am more ready for this than for the unplanned daily tribulations that mark off the mornings and afternoons.