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

You have an incredible body." He reaches out to touch my stomach. I feel no pleasure in his compliment or his touch, only impatience. This is the only feeling. I feel like the paper on which my mood chart is printed.

Smoking had become my favorite thing in the world to do. It was like having instant comfort, no matter where or when.

Acceptance, when it comes, arrives in waves: Listen with your chest. You will feel a pendulum swing within you, favoring one direction or another. And that is your answer. The answer is always inside your chest. The right choice weighs more. That's how you know. It causes you to lean in its direction.

(The new boyfriend) knows I write every day for hours but has no idea that all I’m writing about is me. It seems wiser to let him think I’m an aspiring novelist instead of just an alcoholic with a year of sobriety who spends eight hours a day writing about the other 16.

We were young. We were bored. And the old electroshock therapy machine was just under the stairs in a box next to the Hoover.

This is what happens when you go against the grain of truth. You get splinters later on.