I just want to do something that matters. Or be something that matters. I just want to matter.

I think that it's a universal urge to have our pain not be felt alone and to have our joys not be felt alone.

This is the fear that made fish crawl out onto dry land and evolve lungs, the fear that teaches us to run, the fear that makes us bury our dead.

I don't think ministering requires a religious context. The number one thing is that every parent is extremely worried about their kid. Of course, when a chaplain shows up, that can exacerbate this worry rather than calm it.

I wanted to, you know, get my story out in the world, which, it turns out, is a very misguided notion.

I like the strings. I always have. Because that's how it feels. But the strings make pain seem more fatal than it is, I think. We're not as frail as the strings would make us believe. And I like the grass, too. The grass got me to you, helped me to imagine you as an actual person. But we're not different sprouts from the same plant. I can't be you. You can't be me. You can imagine another well – but never quite perfectly, you know?

Half-drunk on well-creamed gas station coffee and the exhilarating loneliness of a freeway in nighttime.