My mother is the source of my unease in the world and thus the only person who can make me feel at home in the world.

Much as I try to disguise myself, there is never a time when I'm not aware of being overweight.

I think the experience of depression that I most think remains true throughout the years is it's very isolating. That to me is its strongest quality. That you're alone in a room, that you're cut off, you're just sort of stuck with it. It puts up a wall.

Naturally, our own irrational demands strike us as having the force of needs, while other people's needs strike us as capricious indulgences.

No bill of sexual rights can hold its own against the lawless, untamable landscape of the erotic imagination.

Everything felt fragile and freshly come upon, but for now, at least, my depression had stepped back, giving me room to move forward. I had forgotten what it was like to be without it, and for a moment I floundered, wondering how I would recognize myself. I knew for certain it would return, sneaking up on me when I wasn’t looking, but meanwhile there were bound to be glimpses of light if only I stayed around and held fast to the long perspective. It was a chance that seemed worth taking.

Everyone lies about sex, more or less, to themselves if not to others, to others if not to themselves, exaggerating its importance or minimizing its pull.