❝Why are we embarrassed by silence? What comfort do we find in all the noise?❞

❝It took me a while to recognize the difference between someone who genuinely cares about you and welcomes your company and someone who’s just interested in your life’s latest development.❞

❝My solitude doesn’t depend on the presence or absence of people; on the contrary, I hate who steals my solitude without, in exchange, offering me true company.❞

❝You can talk with someone for years, everyday, and still, it won’t mean as much as what you can have when you sit in front of someone, not saying a word, yet you feel that person with your heart, you feel like you have known the person for forever…. connections are made with the heart, not the tongue.❞

❝Realize that anyone who tries to put you down about your appearance is assuming that it is your job to please them visually. Once you realize that it isn’t your job to be visually pleasing to anyone, ever, it becomes very hard for anyone to make you feel bad about yourself.❞

❝A woman is not written in braille, you don’t have to touch her to know her.❞

❝So often we try to make other people feel better by minimizing their pain, by telling them that it will get better (which it will) or that there are worse things in the world (which there are). But that’s not what I actually needed. What I actually needed was for someone to tell me that it hurt because it mattered. I have found this very useful to think about over the years, and I find that it is a lot easier and more bearable to be sad when you aren’t constantly berating yourself for being sad.❞

❝As an atheist, I see nothing “wrong” in believing in a God. I don’t think there is a God, but belief in him does no harm. If it helps you in any way, then that’s fine with me. It’s when belief starts infringing on other people’s rights when it worries me. I would never deny your right to believe in a God. I would just rather you didn’t kill people who believe in a different God, say. Or stone someone to death because your rulebook says their sexuality is immoral. It’s strange that anyone who believes that an all-powerful all-knowing, omniscient power responsible for everything that happens, would also want to judge and punish people for what they are.❞

❝I wish I had the courage not to fight and doubt everything… I wish, just once, I could say, ‘This. This is good enough.’❞

❝That’s the way I am. Either I forget immediately or I never forget.❞

❝Tell people there’s an invisible man in the sky who created the universe, and the vast majority will believe you. Tell them the paint is wet, and they have to touch it to be sure.❞

❝And then I’ll hear things from people where it’s like, “Oh your band’s great but I hate your bass player” and I’m like, then you just said you hate our band cause I don’t fucking care. He’s my best friend. Obviously he’s still in the band for a reason, it’s not like I’m waiting for someone to go “Oh yeah, you know, Pete sucks” and I’ll go like “Yes! Thank you, now he’s totally fired!” No, he’s my best friend and he’s absolutely important. He’s invaluable. I wouldn’t be here without him. I’ll hear things like, “Your voice is great but Pete’s really lame” and it’s like, well, Pete’s the only guy who got me to sing. I wasn’t a singer until Pete saw it in me. So I don’t particularly see value in me being a singer but he does and he’s always my cheerleader, trying to keep me going. So I am the musician I am pretty much because of Pete. And I’m not even saying I’m that great a musician. I’m saying if there’s anyone that thinks I am, all the thanks goes to Pete. So that’s one thing that bothers me a lot and I don’t think people really understand fully.❞

❝Don’t take anything personally. Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.❞

❝There is immeasurably more left inside than what comes out in words.❞