The stars were withdrawn, small, giving no light, unlike other nights when they seemed to hang large from the sky ready to be reached for and taken into our hands.

To me he seemed one of those persons destined to failure of whom you wonder what purpose it can ever serve that they should have ben born.

I think this is what we all want to hear: that we are not alone in hitting the bottom, and that it is possible to come out of that place courageous, beautiful, and strong.

The idea of practicing love is deeply appealing to me, because built right in is an acceptance of imperfection. There is an acknowledgment to myself that I am going to mess this up, an understanding...

You wanted to live inside the lines where the ordinariness of everything would protect you from the dragons that lay at the edge of the map ready to blow fire in your face if you...

Answering the question ‘How would you like to smell?’ by saying ‘I’d rather I didn’t’ is also no longer acceptable. It’s not playing the game. Men are expected to put some cash into the cosmetic...

It was one of those striking moments in life where you find familiarity in the inexplicable.

Do your parents know you’re here?’ asked the lady at social Services. ‘No,’ I said, ‘but I want to know about children’s homes.’ I had to stand on my toes to see over the reception...

Is there anything courageous or brave about making the only possible choice that will save your life? When you’re drowning, you grab any hand that’s offered. To me, bravery is a spontaneous decision to save...

Memory for most is a kind of afterlife; for my mother, it is another form of life.

I don’t need to write a memoir of my life. All you need to do is read one of my books. I’m there.

Lesson learned: If you’re already resorting to writing shitty poetry (not the lovey-dovey kind) to get your guys attention within one month of meeting him, he is not the one.

I read somewhere that a man should tell the story of his life at the age of forty, and this deadline is fast approaching as I write these lines, only a few short weeks remain...

Oh my!! How you’ve grown. Soon you’ll be catching the Lord’s balls.

I discovered that when one follows the artist’s eye one sees unexpected treasures in so many seemingly ordinary scenes.

In late 1949, at two and a half years old, I arrived in Jamaica for the first time. I had crossed the Atlantic by air from England. My Jamaican father was studying in London, my...

If you can see it, you can achieve it. God helps those who helps themselves. Power is in the act of humility.

Your heartbeat is so different from his,” I whisper it; he has to ask me to repeat myself. I explain, “My father…his heartbeat was so fast. I could feel it, racing…it was like his heartbeat...

Who have you helped today”?