“Tragic heroes are failed pragmatists. Their ends are unrealistic and their means are impractical.”

People change, but there really are limits.

To grow up is to discover what one is unequal to.

The child can find out what the object ..might be only by finding ..obstacles to its access

You write to find out what you believe.

We are children for a very long time.

The vocabulary of one’s self-criticism is so impoverished and clichéd.

we are continually under threat from what we are unwilling and/or unable to see.

When we define ourselves by what we can recognize, by what we can comprehend- rather than, say, by what we can describe

Transgression is a quest for solitude

There is always a ..belief that by destroying the thing that we love we destroy our needs

Excesses of appetite are self-cures for feelings of hopelessness. ..

The whole notion of sanity may be an attempt to medicalize morality – to speak of the good in the language of health: to make us more accurate, more scientific in our wanting – but by the same token it becomes a form of moral blackmail.

Wanting to be understood, as adults, can be our most violent form of nostalgia.

Believing in religion is like believing that adulthood is the solution to childhood.

We are at our most stupid in our self-hatred.

We have been taught to wish for it, but the wish to be understood may be our most vengeful demand, may be the way we hang on, as adults ,

When you go out with your crew of friends and you get into trouble, at the end of the night when you come home, you’re still the same crew of friends. It’s just the story that you have to tell.

So much pain. So many lives. Their darkness must end.

Start with the end in mind. If you want to be a millionaire, talk like one, act like one, work like one.

Thinking that what you want equals what’s best for you is a dead end.

You gotta fight. You gotta get out the negative energy. Don’t let it build up. You end up screaming at each other over something totally stupid, like, ‘Well, why’d you put this spoon in this drawer then?’ ‘

You see, Hansel and Gretel don’t just show up at the end of this story. They show up. And then they get their heads cut off. Just thought you’d like to know.

I always work on the songs all together up until the very end. I never mix a song and think, “Okay, now that one’s done.”

It is divinity that shapes, not only your ends, but also your acts, your words and thoughts.