“I define anxiety as experiencing failure in advance.”

“Who I am as a guitarist is defined by my failure to become Jimi Hendrix.”

“Don't let your failures define you.”

“You can’t let your failures define you. You have to let your failures teach you.”

“When you resort to violence to prove a point, you’ve just experienced a profound failure of imagination.”

“Any attempt to define literary theory in terms of a distinctive method is doomed to failure.”

“Without will, no conflict: no tragedy among the abulic. Yet the failure of will can be experienced more painfully than a tragic destiny.”

“It has always been my belief that people are remembered for the sum of their accomplishments but defined by their singular failure.”

“Even in those cities which seem to enjoy the blessings of peace, and where the arts florish, the inhabitants are devoured by envy, cares and anxieties, which are greater plagues than any experienced in a town when it is under siege.”

“What makes a teenage boy’s anxiety so overwhelming is that a teenage boy’s socialization is the demand to perform without the resources to perform. As a result, not only are his risks many, but his failures many. And so apparent… Second, the biggest winners—the football players—are receiving love via self-abuse. For some boys, receiving love via self-abuse creates anxiety. But losing love creates even more anxiety.”