“My parents, you see, were a little square. They cared more about being good parents in the general sense than being good parents for me. They wanted to appear normal; respectable and responsible. B...”

“I learned how to argue. They called it Debate. I learned how to worship. I learned how to become an eager worker and a passive consumer.But I didnt learn anything practical, like how to purify wate...”

“Those drugs were either going to bring me nirvana or they were going to kill me. I was sure of it. And I was comfortable with it.”

“I liked all the children in my class. Back then, I think we all just tacitly assumed that we were equal. That we were all in the same boat. We didnt really think about our different genders, races ...”

“I learned how to argue. They called it ‘Debate’. I learned how to worship. I learned how to become an eager worker and a passive consumer.But I didn’t learn anything practical, like how to purify w...”

“The creature who lives inside my brain suggested I do it,” I offered tentatively. “It was very convincing.”

“I have to convince myself every night that I love you before I go to sleep lest I wake up empty.”

“...nothing in the world is harder than convincing someone of an unfamiliar truth.”

“I lie more convincingly than I tell the truth.”

“Doubt is a creature within the air. It grows when someone hesitates.”

“So, the word wild here is not used in its modern pejorative sense, meaning out of control, but in its original sense, which means to live a natural life, one in which the criatura, creature, has in...”

“Destiny gets compressed, you know, into just that small fraction of a second you have right in front of you at any one time. And theres nothing romantic about keeping your head down to avoid gettin...”