This is the hard part about having best friends that I feel no attachment to -- I don't give them any benefit of the doubt. And being best friends is always about the benefit of the doubt.

If smart people are parodying it, that's a sure sign that some less smart people are believing it.

Do you know when you cross against traffic? You look down the street and see a car coming, but you know you can get across before it gets to you. So even though there’s a DON’T WALK sign, you cross anyway. And there’s always a split second when you turn and see that car coming, and you know that if you don’t continue moving, it will all be over. That’s how I feel a lot of the time. I know I’ll make it across. I always make it across. But the car is always there, and I always stop to watch it coming.

It’s as simple as that. Simple and complicated, as most true things are.

She stays in the same spot, anchored by the profound, desperate loneliness of a bad relationship.

Kindness connects to who you are, while niceness connects to how you want to be seen.

His books are kept on freestanding shelves hung at different angles on a sea-green wall. They defy gravity, as good books should.