I never could have written the screenplay because I would have been forced to learn new software and I can't learn one more thing.

My mother is from Cairo, Georgia. This makes everything she says sound like it went through a curling iron.

My mistake was in underestimating the emotional force of a song you have already hear a thousand times.

And I hope she does not live in a dark world. Because even the most terrible loss doesn't have to make you darker; it can make you deeper.

I understood at once, I am not living, but actively dying. I am smoking, living unhealthily. I’m shutting down. I need to go the other way, inside. And it was so clear to me what I was doing. It was suddenly perfectly clear. I understood, I need to write. Live here, in my words, and my head. I need to go inside, that’s all. No big, complicated, difficult thing. I just need to go in reverse. And not worry about what to write about, but just write. Or, if I’m going to worry about what to write, then do this worrying on paper, so at least I’m writing and will have a record of the anxiety.

Childhood is what ended me up in the hospital and teetering on the edge of deathly alcoholism. It was really good for me to accept it. To accept all the embarrassment and the shame so I don't feel like I used to.

You would be amazed by what you can give up, lose, or break, and yet still be a person who gets happy over brownies.