I feel like I need to give people a note with the book that says, 'I'm OK, no worries!'

Love makes you want to be a better man. But maybe love, real love, also gives you permission to just be the man you are.

I was not a lovable child, and I'd grown into a deeply unlovable adult. Draw a picture of my soul, and it'd be a scribble with fangs.

I waited patiently - years - for the pendulum to swing the other way, for men to start reading Jane Austen, learn how to knit, pretend to love cosmos, organize scrapbook parties, and make out with each other while we leer. And then we'd say, Yeah, he's a Cool Guy.

Ah, well, being conflicted means you can live a shallow life without copping to be a shallow person.

I ached once, hard, like a period typed at the end of a sentence.

Safer to be feared than loved.