One didn't issue instructions to comets. Grown children did what they had to do, and parents could only grit their teeth and watch and pray for them to get through it.

Depression was a very active state really. Even if you appeared to an observer to be immobilized, your mind was in a frenzy of paralysis. You were unable to function, but were actively despising yourself for it.

Just as you began to feel that you could make good use of time, there was no time left to you.

Any mother could perform the jobs of several air-traffic controllers with ease.

Inspiration never arrived when you were searching for it.

That's the risk you take if you change: that people you've been involved with won't like the new you. But other people who do will come along.

The human organism has only so much energy at its disposal. If you divert a great deal of it into any one channel, you can expect the others to collapse or atrophy. If you squander your vital energies on your emotional life, as you have been doing, plan to be physically and mentally bankrupt, as it were.