One of the things I learned about writing a memoir is you can’t drag the reader through everything. Every human life is worth 20 memoirs.

This body needs me to say yes to it, just as it is right now. No more singing that same old jingle of body-shame and dieter's promised lands.

I had lots of appointments, many places to go, and I needed a lot of rest; the art of constructively selling oneself requires much tender self-care

...if that energy could have been channelled into anything more than noise, waste and pain it would have lighted up Indochina for a thousand years.

He had not even the self-complacency that enables stupid people to accept their mediocrity with unction; he had on the contrary an engaging modesty.

I always felt awkward and unfinished, unworthy of love, suspicious of affection offered. My mother's absence became a great presence in my life.

I think each family has a funhouse logic all its own, and in that distortion,in that delusion, all behavior can seem both perfectly normal and crazy.

Sherry Carroll is a real life Penny Lane and one wonders if she hasn't got Cameron Crowe or Lester Bangs hidden somewhere in her suburban basement.

The dizzy rapture of starving. The power of needing nothing. By force of will I make myself the impossible sprite who lives on air, on water, on purity.

Benar atau tidak, jujur atau tidak, memoir ialah sebuah prosa peribadi, karya bukan cereka yang mesti dibaca secara kritis untuk menentukan kebenarannya.

I know of other mothers who have children with disabilities,and right away they loved them and decided to fight for them.That isn’t my story.

I doubt that anyone has a Damascus moment after experiencing discrimination. Most people seem to have shining moments of change after experiencing grace.

...I really did "choose" to be Jim every single day, but that once I put my sword down I haven't chosen Jenny at all; I simply wake up and here I am.

I had to get a close-hand view of the misery and unhappiness of a man made world, before I reached the point where I could successfully revolt against it.

Negative self talk costs more than even the richest person can afford. So be nice to yourself whenever possible … and know that it is always possible.