“It always shocked me when I realized that I wasn’t the only person in the world who thought and felt such strange and awful things.”

You are so busy being you that you have no idea how utterly unprecedented you are.

Poetry is just so emo.” he said. “Oh, the pain. The pain. It always rains. In my soul.

The good times and the bad times both will pass.

There’s some people in this world who you can just love and love and love no matter what.

There is no glory in illness. There is no meaning to it. There is no honor in dying of.

Crying is you, plus tears.

Books are the ultimate Dumpees: put them down and they’ll wait for you forever; pay attention to them and they always love you back.

What a treacherous thing to believe that a person is more than a person.

The past feels distant, even when it’s near. The future feels assured, even when it isn’t.

Much of my life had been devoted to trying not to cry in front of people who loved me.

Maybe there is something you’re afraid to say, or someone you’re afraid to love, or somewhere you’re afraid to go. It’s gonna hurt. It’s gonna hurt because it matters.

It is so hard to leave, until you leave. And then it is the easiest goddamned thing in the world.

Y’all smoke to enjoy it. I smoke to die.

When you acknowledge that there is nothing repulsive or unforgivable or shameful about yourself, it becomes easier to be that authentic person and feel like you’re living a less performed life.

I don’t know a perfect person. I only know flawed people who are still worth loving.

I may die young, but at least I’ll die smart.

I listened, vaguely knowing now that I had committed some awful wrong that I could not undo, that I had uttered words I could not recall even though I ached to nullify them.

Occasionally, when I get mad at a woman, I’ll do some great, awful painting about her.

I had some money, I made the best paintings ever.

I was completely reclusive, worked a lot, took a lot of drugs. I was awful to people.

You make me happy, even when you’re awful. I would rather be with you – even the you that you seem to think is diminished – than with anyone else in the world.

Everything in life has some good in it. And when something awful happens, the goodness stands out even more–it’s sad, but that’s the truth.

Honestly, I haven’t the time to read contemporary writers. I know this is awful, but in the main it is true.

I had an awful first quarter but I picked it up. To all you single guys out there, it’s not how you start the date, it’s how you finish it sir.