…deep-diving love, a love that excavates you. It’s something you have to have before you die in order to have lived.

But most critically, sweet, never try to change the narrative structure of someone else's story, though you will certainly be tempted to, as you watch those poor souls in school, in life, heading unwittingly down dangerous tangents, fatal digressions from which they will unlikely be able to emerge. Resist the temptation. Spend your energies on your story. Reworking it. Making it better.

Some people are as fragile as butterflies and sensitive and it’s your responsibility not to destroy them. Just because you can

I was aware now, as ever, that between all people there were First Times You See Them and Last Times you See Them.

Show me what a man hates and I'll show you what he is.

Look at Picasso. O’Neill. Tennessee Williams. Capote. Were these shiny happy people spreading sunshine? No. Only the greatest of personal demons can force you to do powerful work.

It's not fair. It's not. But then, that's the game. It makes life great. The fact that it ends when we don't want it to. The ending gives it meaning.