—I’M JUST ONE NUMBER AWAY

…I’ve looked most of my failures in the face.  It‘s really hard, because they all look so much like me.

  

…Drama is not known to attract stable types, of which I’m not one.

…I am trying to learn from all this, and what I’ve learned is that if a person stands silent for long enough, eventually only the silence remains.

…Eventually you run out of hiding places.  There’s only so much room in one’s skull, and the heart’s busy trying to pump out all that blood.

…That’s what I try telling myself, that eventually, even scorched earth turns green again.

…You grow to love the creatures you create.  Some of them come out with swirling pupils and others with fangs.

…There is a flat logic when it comes to neglect ,and so now the work I’ve been doing is a kind of erasing, wiping away the stubborn smears and stains.

…To hold you always felt as unlikely as catching the wind in an envelope.

…It’s best never to write anything in the sand.  I mean, why bother?

…They say even longing has its limits, that dumb want is sometimes merely dumb.

…Whatever you do now, you are free to do.

…There will always be an accidental tide pool ready and willing to take you down.

…My mother was allergic to birthdays, but it wasn’t necessarily her fault.

…Sometimes a child has more parents than anyone can count.

…Space is never empty.  You can crush a person from a distance.  Sometimes the first weapon is the act or art of pulling away.

…I’m still looking for a soft place to land.

…As a writer, you’re skinless, and as you go through the world, you have to let things hit you, but if you do that too much and don’t have enough defenses, you perish.  You have to find that balance or you can’t live.

…It’s important to have a number of different voices in your head at all times, which sound like I’m advocating for schizophrenia, but I’m not.  What I’m saying is, it’s when voices get narrow, when you only have one voice, that’s more of a problem than having a lot of them why you’re trying to work something out.

…I could run you through with a sword or hold a gun on you, but if I were to inject you with some of your deepest sorrowful moments, I would have far more control over you than with any weapon.

…Detours.  Detours are where it’s at.

…The whole thing of being together is finding out the parts that fit.

…Tiny things that mean nothing can suddenly collide and mean something extraordinary.

 …You can twirl if you want.  Just put up your arms and I’ll spin you.

  

…I’ve got to look at my failures in the face for a while.  The truth is, in my desperation, I lost the plot.

…Maybe the thing about being a writer is you never get to settle down.  You’re always enthralled by something; an idea, a memory, an emotion, or an ambition.

…A bad day’s when I lie in bed and think of things that might have been.

…I’m going to a new city and I’m looking for everything but your pity.

…You read your Emily Dickinson, and I my Robert Frost, and we note our place with book-markers that measure what we’ve lost.

…Every sound is as good as a conversation.  Even the dust moves and has life.