The 'Hemingway curse' was such a huge, awful thing for me to have to deal with. . . . The reality is, because there are genetic tendencies toward mental illness, you need to be aware of them.

Since I come from a family of mental instability, and I have suffered depression myself, I knew that living in shame is senseless and painful, and that by talking about it, I have come to peace with it. The stigma behind people's suffering needs to end. We as a community need to embrace these disorders, try to understand them (if only just to talk about them) so that we can cease being defined by them.

I think that growth and spiritual awareness come in slow increments. Sometimes you don't know it's happening.

It's not that I don't believe in miracles, but I never quite trust that they're real.

We live in a society that is afraid of ways of being it doesn't understand.

I do a lot of work with mental health and wellness, which I also believe has a lot to do with your lifestyle as well - what you're eating, how you're living, what you're thinking. How you live your life can affect your mental state.

Sometimes you can't see your way out. The "dark night of the soul" - it's a reality for many, many people.