All that happens when your dreams come true is a slow, melting realization that it wasn’t what you thought.
Hello, Edward. I’ve been waiting for you.
There is no such thing as ‘too late’ in life.
War could bond men like a magnet, but like a magnet it could repel them, too. The things they saw, the things they did. Sometimes they just wanted to forget.
If you’re always battling against getting older, you’re always going to be unhappy, because it’s going to happen anyhow.
No, Edward. You are here so I can teach you something. All the people you meet here have one thing to teach you.
There is no fairness in life and death. If there were, no good men would die young.
I feel ashamed now that I tried to take my life. It is such a precious thing. I had no one to talk me out of my despair and that was a mistake. You need to keep people close. You need to give them access to your heart.
You can be a mama’s boy, be a daddy’s boy, but you can’t be both. So you cling to the one you think you might lose.
The backside of a mountain is a fight against human nature. You have to care as much about yourself on the way down as you did on the way up.
For better or for worse, I’ve watched people die in front of me. I see how they are in the end. And they’re not cynical. In the end, they wanna hold somebody’s hand. And that’s real to me.
People are only mean when they’re threatened, and that’s what our culture does. That’s what our economy does.
Detroit is a place where we’ve had it pretty tough. But there is a generosity here and a well of kindness that goes deep.
For years I wrote in my basement. More recently I graduated to one floor above, an office with all my books and music and – ta da! – a window.
Nobody’s favorite movie is some dark, dysfunctional slasher story. Everybody’s favorite song is a sentimental song. So why all of a sudden is it bad to be sentimental in books?
A memoir should have some uplifting quality, inspiring or illuminating, and that’s what separates a life story that can influence other people.
Anyone who tries to write a memoir needs to keep in mind that what’s interesting to you isn’t necessarily interesting to a reader.
I was a workaholic. I never stopped. I lived in fifth gear. I bought cars. I invested in stocks. I made more money than I had ever imagined.
One day can bend your life.
My mother was French Protestant, and my father was Italian Catholic, and their union was an excess of God, guilt and sauce.