You’re less a quantifiable entity than a loosely tethered association of wave particles in a shared location.

A lot of what is called low self-esteem is simply seeing yourself as others do.

Approaching the age of his father’s death, and exhibiting all of his worst traits and none of the good, he understood that the rest of his life was to be an experiment without an easy conclusion.

The gift of language: miracle and catastrophe.

My aunt had a big old chunky hand-carved Dubrovnik set she picked up in Yugoslavia in the early 80s. Each piece was over 5 feet tall and moved around on a football field-sized board with an elaborately geared system of pulleys and levers. Tournaments were winner-take-all affairs, with the losers consigned to tower jail cells. In the event of a draw both players were executed.

Alone in his hotel room he wrote:
I am strong. I am unafraid.
He took a sip of his drink and added:
I am over it.
He sat back and looked at what he had written.
None of it was true.
But for the first time in years, he could imagine it.

The promise of lawn sprinklers in the sun, that’s all over now.

Stepping out after a dreadful night, you feel the air on your skin and it all rolls over you again: the majesty of life on earth.

20 years on, he didn’t know whether he should break down sobbing or smother her with a pillow. Probably both. He felt that way about most of his patients and it had worn him down. He was drinking too much, losing sleep and had developed a pronounced limp. Physician, destroy thyself.

When he stepped out to get the paper the sun was shining, and he realized for the first time in months that he wasn’t scared. Maybe this was how it was for people. Maybe this was what he could hope for.

The inexplicable burst of popularity he had enjoyed in his youth dissipated quickly as his contempt for the audience became all too obvious.

Affliction and disease present the greatest advertising opportunity in the history of mankind.