Holding Up the Universe

We're all weird and damaged in our own way. You're not the only one.

Dear friend, You are not a freak. You are wanted. You are necessary. You are the only you there is. Don’t be afraid to leave the castle. It’s a great big world out there. Love, a fellow reader

People are shitty for a lot of reasons. Sometimes they're just shitty people. Sometimes people have been shitty to them and, even though they don't realize it, they take that shitty upbringing and go out into the world and treat others the same way. Sometimes they're shitty because they're afraid. Sometimes they choose to be shitty to others before others can be shitty to them. So it's like self-defensive shittiness.

It's about the important things, like the way their face lights up when they laugh, or the way they move as they're walking towards you, or the way their freckles create a map of the stars.

We don't ever leave that old world behind. We just create a new one.

This is what I know about loss. It doesn't get better. You just get (somewhat) used to it.

It's my experience that the people who are most afraid are the ones who hide behind mean and threatening words.

You might not want to burn your bridges when you're standing on an island.

We can't fight another person's battle, no matter how much we want to.

I want you to know I'm rooting for you.' Sometimes we need to hear that, even from a stranger.

Everyone in my life is a stranger, and that includes me.

I’ve always thought you should be able to freeze time. This way you could hit the Pause button at a really good point in your life so that nothing changes

If you're not careful, you're going to run into someone angrier than you.

This is what I know about loss: - It doesn't get better. You just (somewhat) get used to it. - You never stop missing the people who go away. - For something that isn't there anymore, it weighs a ton.

It's the suddenness of life changing in an instant that makes me anxious when I sleep and makes me tell myself to breathe when I'm awake.

I think what an amazing world this would be if we all danced everywhere we went.

How can something so final happen in an instant? No preparation. No warning. No chance to do all the things you planned to do. No chance to say goodbye.

We never know how long we have. We're never guaranteed tomorrow. I could die right now, right here.

Sometimes all I did all day was just wander around in my mind.

It is 3:38 a.m., and the time of night when my mind starts running around all wild and out of control, like my cat, George, when he was a kitten.

It's not moving on, Libbs. It's moving differently. That's all it is. Different life. Different world. Different rules. We don't ever leave that old world behind. We just create a new one.

Too much of my life feels like this already- trying to recycle something old into something new and better, disguising someone else's trash as some fresh, shiny thing.

Everyone has a moment in history which belongs particularly to him.

I want you to remember that you can’t feel responsible for everything. We’re your parents, and we will figure us out. All you need to do— any of you”— she looks at my brothers—” is be a kid for now and let us be there for you.”“All of us?” Dusty says. “Even those of us without neurological disorders?” “All of you.

One of the worst things a pretty girl can say to a fat girl is You look really pretty.

I say, "I love you." She says, "I love you too." And then she laughs. "It's kind of crazy. I mean you." "I know. What the hell?" She covers her mouth with one hand, but her eyes are shining. I'm thinking about a field of grass on a summer day. I'm thinking about the sun and being warmed from the inside and warmed from the outside. I take her hand under the gray-blue sky and I'm home.

I think of something my mom used to say, about how as scary as it is to go after dreams, it's even scarier not to.

If you walk away, don't come back. You don't get to do that and come back.

So what makes you angry?` `Stupid people. Fake people. Mean people. Death. I worry about dying all the time. Like, all the time.