Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing: 'A candid, darkly funny book' New York Times

Panic set in. My bag was full. I was not high. There was nothing separating me from me. I felt like a little kid scared of monsters in the dark. But was I the monster?

Find a friend who’ll quit something with you—you’ll be amazed what that does for a friendship.

nature, when a penguin is injured, the other penguins group around it and prop it up until it’s better.

have always thought that the ocean mirrors the subconscious mind. There’s beauty—coral reefs, brightly colored fish, spume, and refracted sunlight—but there’s something darker, sharks and tiger fish and endless deeps just ready to swallow rickety fishing boats.

came out screaming, and I didn’t stop screaming. For weeks. I was a colicky kid—my stomach was a problem from the very start. My parents were being driven crazy by the amount I was crying. Crazy? Concerned, so they hauled me off to a doctor. This is 1969, a prehistoric time compared to now. That said, I don’t know how advanced civilization has to b

Nobody has a drinking problem and then stops and then drinks socially and it’s fine. The disease just picks up.

I’m not the biggest fan of confrontation. I ask a lot of questions. Just not out loud.

Know more, say less.

I guess the lesson is, take every opportunity, because something might come of it.

If you give me all the OxyContin I can stand, I feel taken care of, and when I’m taken care of, I can take care of everybody else and look outward and be in service to someone. But without medication, I feel that I would just sputter away into a sea of nothingness.