“Even when it’s not pretty or perfect. Even when it’s more real than you want it to be. Your story is what you have, what you will always have. It is something to own.” – pg. xi
“Time, as far as my father was concerned, was a gift you gave to other people.” – pg. 34
“Failure is a feeling long before it is an actual result.” – pg. 43
“What I’ve learned is this: All of them have had doubters. Some continue to have roaring, stadium-sized collections of critics and naysayers who will shout I told you so at every little misstep or mistake. The noise doesn’t go away, but the most successful people I know have figured out how to live with it, to lean on the people who believe in them, and to push onward with their goals.” – pg. 67
“This may be the fundamental problem with caring a lot about what others think: It can put you on the established path – the my-isn’t-that-impressive path – and keep you there for a long time. Maybe it stops you from swerving, from ever even considering a swerve, because what you risk losing in terms of other people’s high regard can feel too costly.” – pg. 91
“I was twenty-seven years old now, and these were days when all I wanted was to feel complete. I wanted to grab every last thing I loved and stake it ruthlessly to the ground.” – pg. 141
“Inspiration on its own was shallow; you had to back it up with hard work.” – pg. 158
“Most of us lived in a state of constant calibration, tweaking one area of life in hopes of bringing more steadiness to another.” – pg. 201
“I’m not sure anyone around me would have said I wasn’t doing enough, but I was always aware of everything I would’ve followed through on and didn’t.” – pg. 210
“I’ve learned that it’s harder to hate up close.” – pg. 270
“As a kid, you learn to measure long before you understand the size or value of anything. Eventually, if you’re lucky, you learn that you’ve been measuring all wrong.” – pg. 313
“All we could do then was put our faith into the effort, trusting that with sun and rain and time, something half decent would push up through the dirt.” – pg. 322
“I felt sometimes like a swan on a lake, knowing that my job was in part to glide and appear serene, while underwater I never stopped pedaling my legs.” – pg. 329
“My friends made me whole, as they always have and always will. […] They helped me ride out the big, unsettling waves that sometimes hit without notice.” – pg. 362
“I’d been lucky to have parents, teachers, and mentors who’d fed me with a consistent, simple message: You matter.” – pg. 383
“You may live in the world as it is, but you can still work to create the world as it should be.” – pg. 395
“I had nothing or I had everything. It depends on which way you want to tell it.” – pg. 416
“Becoming is never giving up on the idea that there’s more growing to be done.” – pg. 419
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