nēˈäləˌjizəm

“Life is the con. You buy a place; get married; you get streaks in your hair; you buy the pair of shoes that everyone else is wearing. And somehow you fit in, you belong, and somehow that ensures that you live a long, healthy life. But it doesn’t. But we’re being berated by society, the media, commercials and our peers that these things are the things you have to do to maintain a normal existence. And it’s all a con.”

We don’t see things as they are; we see them as we are

I think there is a certain age, for women, when you become fearless. It may be a different age for every woman, I don’t know. It’s not that you stop fearing things: I’m still afraid of heights, for example. Or rather, of falling — heights aren’t the problem. But you stop fearing life itself. It’s when you become fearless in that way that you decide to live. Perhaps it’s when you come to the realization that the point of life isn’t to be rich, or secure, or even to be loved — to be any of the things that people usually think is the point. The point of life is to live as deeply as possible, to experience fully. And that can be done in so many ways.