I've always wanted to be a guy with a rec room.

If you're an asshole, you have an excuse for being an asshole because you're a junkie. But then once you give up the drugs, and you're still an asshole, that's problematic.

At 17, all I wanted was to be a famous junky. Like all my heroes.

I always figured I myself would never be lucky enough to die, I'd just live on and on in this increasingly dreary spiral.

I used to say, for me, writing was like walking a high wire, and heroin made me forget there was no net. Which is a fancy way of saying dope made me forget how shitty I felt for being on dope.

I always tell myself, when I remember the non-stop self-generated hell party that used to be my life, I wouldn't be here if I didn't go there.

The art and act of writing - speaking just for myself - involves getting your proverbial ass in the proverbial chair.