Dress Codes for Small Towns

He says, "I think there's a place where love equals history and a place where love equals the future and a place where love is just love and it doesn't go away no matter whether you get it back or not. Figuring out the difference-" "Is impossible," I finish.

I don't measure her love in hours spent with me. I measure it in hours spent understanding me.

What everyone is scared of—that if I’m me, I’m not enough.

There is more than one way to add color to the world. More than one way to crown a queen.

Death can muddle beliefs and raise questions, but it makes love crystal clear.

In this case, your life is your art, and no one, no one but you can tell you how to finish this piece. You just have to live it and see how it turns out. And if you don't like it, you do what I do when I'm working on a canvas that goes south.' 'What's that?' 'You paint over it,' she says.

And he gets why I didn't want us to be that to each other. Most people want puddles to splash around in; Thom wants souls where scuba diving is encouraged.

I kiss her back. Because. . .well, she's so present. So alive. So magnanimous. And when she is kissing me, all the death of the last week disappears.

Most people want puddles to splash around in; Thom wants souls where scuba diving is encouraged.

Thinking of yourself is boyish is one thing, but your friends assigned you a gender - without asking - and that flayed you. If I had to speculate, you're actually upset because you believe they should know you well enough to avoid such an error. Which isn't totally fair to you or them. Gender, sexuality, fluidity: Those areas require stumbling around in the dark, feeling, and bumping into things. But even if you can admit to that, you still feel out of control. And probably lonely.

This is my deepest well, and I have dropped a coin to the very bottom.

As much as I wanted this thing to happen, I wasn't prepared to enjoy it that much and feel so uncertain at the same time.

If we move, we move.

When you pick up a casket, you feel the weight of it very differently than you think you will. We carry it. It carries us. The real weight is carrying each other.

...And no one is asking you to choose because of a whiteboard or a sex dream." "I know." "But you still feel pressured to choose?" "I feel pressure to assess," I say. "It all has to mean something.

And the church feels like they should be a certain way for God. It’s just . . . isn’t God all open arms and welcome home?

And I like him, and I've thought about liking her, and they've thought about me having a dick.

Woods is one of those people who make you hand on their recycled words.

I will either play the game and miss finding out the truth - or I will explore the truth hand lose the game. Only it's not a game. Because games go back in boxes and get stacked away with other games. This nomination, this competition has real stakes. I know the cost. It's the same price Davey paid just four months ago: a town, a house, a parent, a move, a hobby, friends.