Credentials and money are not antidotes to the lingering effects of childhood maltreatment.

If you want to gauge your relationship with yourself and your life, put everything aside and just be alone with your thoughts.

Only the affluent can afford to learn strange vocabulary, because ordinary people have real problems to worry about.

No institution is more aware of the latent impulsivity and stupidity in young people, especially young men, than the military.

That’s never been my intention—I don’t want pity. I’m one of the lucky ones.

Unfortunately, like fashion trends that debut on the runway and make it into JCPenney three years later, the luxury beliefs of the upper class often trickle down and are adopted by people lower on the food chain, which means many of these beliefs end up causing social harm.

At school, I got into an argument with a kid named Jared. I’d never gotten along with him. In middle school, he called a Black kid the N-word and the kid responded by punching Jared in the face. His favorite band was Insane Clown Posse and he talked about girls and sex nonstop even though he’d never had a girlfriend. We were arguing about something

Affluent people, particularly in the 1960s, championed sexual freedom. Loose sexual norms caught on for the rest of society. The upper class, though, still had intact families. Generally speaking, they experimented in college and then settled down later. The families of the lower classes fell apart.

Near the end of my internship, I was out in the playground helping a few kids dig a hole in the sand pit. One of the boys mentioned he’d gone out to eat with his family the night before. “What did you have for dinner?” I asked. “Arugula salad,” he replied. “But usually I get squid ink.” I didn’t know what surprised me more—the choice of food or the