“The bottom line is this: You write in order to change the world, knowing perfectly well that you probably can’t, but also knowing that literature is indispensable to the world. The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way people look at reality, then you can change it…If there is no moral question, there is no reason to write. I’m an old-fashioned writer and, despite the odds, I want to change the world”

“Don’t look away. Look straight at everything. Look it all in the eye, good and bad.”

““Why do we all say we prefer honesty but rarely give that courtesy to others?” - Aziz Ansari, Modern Romance: An Investigation”

“One day, I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”

“It is true that I miss intelligent companionship, but there are so few with whom I can share the things that mean so much to me that I have learned to contain myself. It is enough that I am surrounded with beauty.”