Don't uncork what you can't contain

Writing in other voices is almost Japanese in the sense that theres a certain formality there which allows me to sidestep the embarrassment of directly expressing to complete strangers the most intimate details of my life.

A lot of my writing is not terribly civilized. Sometimes I listen to songs by very smart writers who assume that the world is a civil place with certain formalities that people follow, but I don't see things that way. My own experience tells me that life is not like that. That's why I write the way I do.

Last year's troubles, They shine up so prettily, They gleam with a lustre they don't have today.

I was the oldest child, and both my parents worked, so I had a great deal of responsibility from a very young age.

If language were liquid, it would be rushing in. Instead here we are in a silence more eloquent than any word could ever be.

I didn't go out looking for fights as a kid, but if it was necessary, I'd fight. Fighting was a daily thing where we lived.