The general plot of life is sometimes shaped by the different ways genuine intelligence combines with equally genuine ignorance.

Through [my friends] I discovered what it was to love people. There was an art to it...which was not really all that different from the love that is necessary in the making of art. It required the effort of always seeing them for themselves and not as I wished them to be.

I used to think that once you really knew a thing, its truth would shine on forever. Now it's pretty obvious to me that more often than not the batteries fade, and sometimes what you knew even goes out with a bang when you try and call on it, just like a light bulb cracking off when you throw the switch.

While our bodies move ever forward on the time line, our minds continuously trace backward, seeking shape and meaning as deftly as any arrow seeking its mark

The general plot of life is sometimes shaped by the different ways genuine intelligence combines with equally genuine ignorance.

Partly I was honing my self-consciousness into a torture device, sharp and efficient enough to last me the rest of my life.

Beauty, as defined by society at large, seemed to be only about who was best at looking like everyone else.