I really didn't have any fear about the humiliation factor. That was something I was excited to get the opportunity to explore. My fears were about pulling it off.

Oh, do not scowl at me, reader, I do not intend to convey the impression that I did not manage to be happy.

Being put in our place by something larger, older, greater than ourselves is not a humiliation; it should be accepted as a relief from our insanely hopeful ambitions for our lives.

People shouldn't be embarrassed just because they get caught acting a little silly.

Difference does not have to be threatening.

This writing wasn't painful. It was like being high.

But being uncomfortable is a virtue, not a hindrance.

Not to have a thing is less humiliating than to beg it.

Gingrich: It's not an insulting comment.

The public have neither shame or gratitude.

The experience was not of love growing but of its being no longer obscured.

All experience is an enrichment rather than an impoverishment.

We are not always humiliated by failing at things; we are humiliated only if we first invest our pride and sense of worth in a given achievement, and then do not reach it.

My queerness is not a vice, is not deliberate, and harms no one.