Choice by choice, moment by moment, I build the necklace of my day, stringing together the choices that form artful living.

We need to bridge our sense of loneliness and disconnection with a sense of community and continuity even if we must manufacture it from our time on the Web and our use of calling cards to connect long distance. We must “log on” somewhere, and if it is only in cyberspace, that is still far better than nowhere at all. (264)

Creativity makes life useful to us. It also makes us useful to life.

It's impossible to get better and look good at the same time.

The voice of our original self is often muffled, overwhelmed, even strangled, by the voices of other people’s expectations.

Writing just for the hell of it is heaven.

I am what I am again: a writer. I have metabolized the injury into art.