It is such a secret place, the land of tears. That is what the narrator ofThe Little Prince says after the little prince argues with him the first time about matters of consequence. And he was right. My land of tears had been a secret for a very long time.

Abandoning a task that is futile and pointless is not giving up.

There's nothing that says you can't change." "Not even if it changes everything else?" I shook my head. "Not even then.

I didn’t fall in love with James. Falling sounds like an accident. Falling hurts. I’d fallen in love with Michael, fallen hard like slipping off a cliff and hitting the rocks below. Falling in love was something I’d vowed never to do again. I chose to love James.

He was quiet. I said nothing, hoping that maybe, for once, he'd stop pretenting he was okay. Then I could, too. That we could both forget the roles that had so long bound us.

I was trying to replace something I'd come to care about very much with something pretending to be as important.

Does madness bring creativity? Or does creativity cause madness? Can an artist create without the ups so high and the downs so low?