Beauty, my first girlfriend said to me, is that inner quality often associated with great amounts of leisure time.

If I could have found what I needed at thirteen, I would not have lost so much of my life chasing vindication or death. Give some child, some thirteen-year old, the hope of the remade life. Tell the truth. Write the story that you were always afraid to tell. I swear to you there is magic in it.

If you just go get one of these little fine arts degrees or writing program degrees, it never forces you to confront your responsibility as narrator, whereas any of the social sciences make you at look the interaction between the storyteller and story.

Two or three things I know for sure, and one of them is the way you can both hate and love something you are not sure you understand.

I can't write what I don't believe in.

Teenagers are free verse walking around on two legs.

Two or three things I know for sure, and one is that I'd rather go naked than wear the coat the world has made for me.