I write because writing is the best way to explore the delicious, perplexing, maddening frictions that surround me on all sides. Which is to say that writing helps me think like an adult. Which is to say that I can, for minutes at a time, rub together two opposing ideas until they heat up and begin to smoke:
■ People can be savage one moment and tender the next.
■ Events can be both horrible and funny.
■ Transcendence and trauma are entwined like snakes in mid-fuck.
No, wait—I write because I’m too fat to breakdance, but I crave attention.
No, wait—I write in tribute to the captivating, hilarious storytellers I grew up listening to around
