The best time to tell your story is when you have to tell your story. When it's not really a choice. But then, when you get that first, messy, complicated version down, you have to read it over and be very tough on yourself and ask, 'Well what's the story here?' If you're lucky enough to have someone you trust looking over your shoulder, he or she can help you if [you] lack perspective on your own story.

Whoever coined the phrase 'a man's got to play the hand that was dealt him' was most certainly one piss-poor bluffer.

When people kill themselves, they think they're ending the pain, but all they're doing is passing it on to those they leave behind.

You didn't need a college degree to become one of the people who knew what was really going on. If you paid attention, you could pick things up on your own.

It's so much of what art and creativity are, being able to confront your own demons. If you can do that, you can get through just about everything.

I lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire. It was the sort of knowledge that kept you on your toes.

...even though I was getting better education at home than any of the kids in Toyah, I'd need to go to finishing school when I was thirteen, both to acquire social graces and to earn a diploma. Because in this world, Dad said, it's not enough to have a fine education. You need a piece of paper to prove you go it.