Clear communication between selves - the surface self and the deep self - is the enemy of self-doubt. It slays confusion.

you will not falter, because you will have the Everlasting Arm of the Lord God of Hosts to lean on. Yes. With God’s help you will stand.

The idea that the creative endeavor and mind-altering substances are entwined is one of the great pop-intellectual myths of our time. Substance abusing writers are just substance abusers — common garden variety drunks and druggies, in other words. Any claims that the drugs and alcohol are necessary to dull a finer sensibility are just the usual self-serving bullshit. I've heard alcoholic snowplow drivers make the same claim, that they drink to still the demons.

The turtle couldn't help us.

If I kept saying it; if I kept reaching out. My accident really taught me just one thing: the only way to go on is to go on. To say 'I can do this' even when you know you can't.

We'll just have to get along. That's what people do, you know? They just get along. And try to help each other.

She can't help it,' he said. 'She's got the soul of a poet and the emotional makeup of a junkyard dog.