There's not a lot of room for un-ironic emotion in contemporary culture. I think that irony is an important tool in dealing with the world as we find it. It's a tool of protection, but it can also be a tool of incision to get to some truth. But along the way maybe we've lost some of what I think of as the power of straightforward emotion and earnestness and seriousness.

At least it was instant. At least there wasn't any pain." I knew he was only trying to help, but he didn't get it. There was pain. A dul endless pain in my gut that wouldn't go away even when I knelt on the stingingly frozen tile of the bathroom, dry-heaving.

That deep, can-still-taste-her-in-my-mouth sleep.

Suffering is universal. it’s the one thing Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims are all worried about.

It's just that I learned a while ago that the best way to get people to like you is not to like them too much.

Our role as humans is to recognize the complexity of others.

But there's so much to do: cigarettes to smoke, sex to have, swings to swing on.