Sketchbook

“A friendship breakup, after all, can be just as exquisitely painful as a romantic one — and sometimes it’s worse. “There’s no words for it, no songs written about it. You can’t even explain to yourself what’s going on or why you feel so bad,” Gerwig says. “I think in your late 20s you go through this realization that your friends are not your family and they don’t owe you the things that your family owes you.”
—   Entertainment Weekly, May 17, 2013

“We accept the love we think we deserve.”
—   Perks of Being a Wallflower

Making It Last - The New York Times

A collection of “Making It Last” columns from The New York Times.

“Women denied abortion were three times as likely to end up below the federal poverty line two years later.”
—   New York Times

“A person willing to trade intellectual integrity for recognition is not approaching their creativity as a business.”
—   Maya Francis

“A good conversation is an interesting thing; it can’t be a solely individual endeavor—it has to be a group effort. Each individual has to sacrifice a little for the benefit of the group as a whole and ultimately, to increase the pleasure each individual receives. It’s like a song where the rhythm is paramount, and each person in the group must contribute to keeping that rhythm going. One person who keeps on playing a sour note can throw the whole thing off.”
—   The Art of Conversation

“She would be accused of being a sybarite if it weren’t for the conceptual rigor she applies to her aesthetics”
—   New York Times Magazine

“The wealthy do, it turns out. And the poor, and the middle class. Parents of all ages and ethnicities do it. Mothers are just as likely to do it as fathers. It happens to the chronically absent-minded and to the fanatically organized, to the college-educated and to the marginally literate. In the last 10 years, it has happened to a dentist. A postal clerk. A social worker. A police officer. An accountant. A soldier. A paralegal. An electrician. A Protestant clergyman. A rabbinical student. A nurse. A construction worker. An assistant principal. It happened to a mental health counselor, a college professor and a pizza chef. It happened to a pediatrician. It happened to a rocket scientist.”
—   Fatal Distraction, Washington Post

“Bitterness is really just amplified self-pity. And no one wants to be around that.”
—   Marc Maron, Rolling Stone May 23, 2013

“Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they have the answers.”
—   Mary Oliver