... Survival Is The Least Of My

If I Could Have Found What I Needed At Thirteen, I Would Not Have Lost So Much Of My Life Chasing Vindication Or Death. Give Some Child, Some Thirteen-year Old, The Hope Of The Remade Life. Tell The Truth. Write The Story That You Were Always Afraid To Tell. I Swear To You There Is Magic In It.

Two Or Three Things I Know For Sure, And One Of Them Is That If We Are Not Beautiful To Each Other, We Cannot Know Beauty In Any Form.

I Tell My Students You Have An Absolute Right To Write About People You Know And Love. You Do. But The Kicker Is You Have A Responsibility To Make The Characters Large Enough That You Will Not Have Sinned Against Them.

Things Come Apart So Easily When They Have Been Held Together With Lies.

He Never Said "don't Tell Your Mama." He Never Had To Say It. I Did Not Know How To Tell Anyone What I Felt, What Scared Me And Shamed Me... (109)