Whether keenly striking or laughably awful, contemporary art is rarely unentertaining.

I was seventeen, halfway toward eighteen, and I had learned something nobody had ever taught me: Once you get to a certain age, especially if a driver’s license is involved, you can go a whole...

It was a mistake,” you said. But the cruel thing was, it felt like the mistake was mine, for trusting you.

Love me less,but love me for a long time.

My eyes are open and I’m not seeing a thing because I am so lost inside.

It is a sound like loneliness—enough to let you know you’re there, but not enough to fill you with life.

and i’m thinking, aren’t i supposed to be the one who’s freaking out here? tiny is going to be the first b-b-b- (i can’t do it) boy-f-f-f (c’mon, will) boyf-boyf (here we go) boyfriend of...

Enlightenment is scary. Sometimes things look better in the dark.

I have never wanted a lover. In order to have a lover, I must go back to the root of the word. For I have never wanted a lover, but I have always wanted to...

Life goes on. Get over it. You’re still young. It’ll get better. Blah, Blah, Blah

You know there’s no such thing as a complete lie. There’s always some truth in there.

I no longer think she’s just being nice. She’s being kind. Which is much more a sign of character than mere niceness. Kindness connects to who you are, while niceness connects to how you want...

The sound of the words as they’re said is always different from the sound they make when they’re heard, because the speaker hears some of the sound from the inside

When you need to hold onto something, you should. Whatever gets you through, take it.

I’m persnickety,” I confessed. “Not, incidentally, to the point of being snarly. But still. Delightful and persnickety are not a common blend.” “Do you want to know why I never married?” “The question wasn’t at...

Okay, Boomer, you’re right. I liked ‘Ooh… a girl!’ much more than that. Let’s stick with ‘Ooh… a girl!

When I turned to look at you, I was afraid to move again—the moment was just too beautiful to be lost.

Why are there so many people out here?’ Boomer asked as we bobbed and weaved roughly forward.’Christmas shopping.’ I explained.’Already? Isn’t it early to returning things?’I really had no sense of how his mind worked.

Failure is always louder than success. But there is an accumulation of all the things you don’t do wrong, and that becomes your confidence. You can even get to the point where that confidence lasts...

The way you’re singing in your sleepThe way you look before you leapThe strange illusions that you keepYou don’t knowBut I’m noticingThe way your touch turns into arcsThe way you slide into the darkThe beating...

In my mind, she was Lebkuchen Spice—ironic, Germanic, sexy, and off beat. And, mein Gott, the girl could bake a damn fine cookie … to the point that I wanted to answer her What do...

A Cue from NatureRun outside during a thunderstormThat downpour, that conquered hesitation, that exhilarationThat’s what unlonely is like

You can’t know what it is like for us now–you will always be one step behind.Be thankful for that.You can’t know what it was like for us then–you will always be one step ahead.Be thankful...

dumbfounded, adj.And still, for all the jealousy, all the doubt, sometimes I will be struck with a kind of awe that we’re together. That someone like me could findsomeone like you — it renders me...

But once upon a time – that would be our time – a telephone cord seemed like nothing less than a lifeline.It was your attachment to the outside world and, even more than that, your...

elliptical, adj.The kiss I like the most is one of the slow ones. It’s as much breath as touch, as much no as yes. You lean in from the side, and I have to turn...

Long live protest songs, in whatever form they take.

People are rarely as attractive in reality as they are in the eyes of the people who are in love with them.

Be careful what you’re doing, because no one is ever who you want them to be. And the less you really know them, the more likely you are to confuse them with the girl or...

Maybe that’s it, […] [w]ith what you were talking about before. The world being broken. Maybe it isn’t that we’re supposed to find the pieces and put them back together. Maybe we’re the pieces.” […]...

When nothing else is left, art will become the truth of the time. Then people will get to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and wonder what happened—how we all became so imperfect.

I tried to put myself in his place, and realized we looked exactly like what we were: a family. These strangely tied together individuals trying desperately to keep both ourselves and one another happy. Succeeding,...

If I’m not telling you something, it’s for a reason. Just because you trust me, it doesn’t mean I have to automatically trust you. Trust doesn’t work like that.

It’s one thing to fall in love. It’s another to feel someone else fall in love with you, and to feel a responsibility toward that love.

What you’re feeling right now doesn’t work. You can’t wander around and think the wandering will call them back. Believe me. I know you don’t want to hear the long view, but let me tell...

One of the protestor’s sign catches my eye. HOMISEXUALITY IS THE DEVIL’S WORK, it says. And once again I think about how people use the devil as an alias for the things they fear. The...

why do you have to fix the salad? who broke it? i didn’t touch it. did you break the salad, mom? if you did, YOU’D BETTER FIX IT!

What a powerful word, future. Of all the abstractions we can articulate to ourselves, of all the concepts we have that other animals do not, how extraordinary the ability to consider a time that’s never...

Teachers are wonderful beings who inspire the spirit and open the mind.Nobody at Padua High School fits that description.

You don’t know me. You know one me, just like I know one you. And you can’t know every me, and I can’t know every you.

…because if you can make yourself happy in the rain then you’re doing pretty alright in life.

We come to a corner where there are a few people protesting the festivities. I don’t understand this at all. It’s like protesting the fact that some people are red-haired. In my experience, desire is...

The sound of words as they’re said is always different from the sound they make when they’re heard, because the speakers hears some of the sound from the inside.

New Yorkers love the bigness — the skyscrapers, the freedom, the lights. But they also love it when they can carve out some smallness for themselves. When the guy at the corner store knows which...

Feeling someone else’s anger is bad; being left alone is worse.

isaac knows how stupid i find these things, and he finds them just as stupid as i do. like lol. now, if there’s anything stupider than buddy lists, it’s lol. if anyone ever uses lol...

I am jealous of anyone who can make other people care so much.

The quiet times are the ones to hold on to.

When you dance, you measure distance as if it’s a solid thing; you make precise judgments every time two bodies exist in relation to each other. So I knew right away the definition of the...

It’s one thing to fall in love. It’s another to feel someone else fall in love with you, and to feel a responsibility toward that love.