I have been, earlier in my life, a lazy writer. I'd spend three hours at the gym to avoid writing, or I'd just find other distractions - reading, doing laundry, talking on the phone, etc. But suddenly I was like a laser beam: I was relentlessly focused, sometimes to the detriment of other things.

Nonfiction ties your hands a bit, and just like writing poetry in rhyme, it can force you to make more brutal decisions in terms of word choice, plot, etc.

The most precious love is often the kind that isn't returned, and that is given freely.

I don't believe in God, but I do believe in that chaotic reality, and also this: that none of us knows anything about anything. Period.

Think of how much we stress about living up to our "potential," and how it creates anxiety and terror in people; in short, stops them from living their life as fully as they might out of fear and self-loathing.

Although I don't think love is quantitatively measured - in other words, I don't believe that you "don't know love until you have a child," that whole thing - I do believe it is qualitatively different.

I love poetry, but I find it so difficult to write well.