Good art originates not from the desire to show off but from the desire to show yourself.

Every day, I returned to the closet, sat down on the floor littered with T-shirts and jeans, and I practiced sinking. The Knowing would meet me in the deep and nudge me toward the next right thing, one thing at a time. That was how I began to know what to do next. That was how I began to walk through my life more clearly, solid and steady.

I wished I could ask her, “What’s happening inside you right now?”

I do not know if I lived the next few years and then wrote about what happened or if I wrote the next few years and then made it all happen. It didn’t matter.

When a woman finally learns that pleasing the world is impossible, she becomes free to learn how to please herself.

Goldenness requires contrast.

And now they want me to write my book as some kind of hero athlete puff piece, but I keep thinking: What if I’m just honest? What if I write the truth about my life?” I am sad for her, but I am thrilled for me. In our four minutes together she has asked me about the three subjects I know best: drinking, writing, and shame. This is my jam. I’ve got

safe. The Ache keeps me fine, which is another word for half dead.

there is no such thing as other people’s children.