Dear Kari

What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured. –Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Don't lament so much about how your career is going to turn out. You don't have a career. You have a life. Do the work. Keep the faith. Be true blue. You are a writer because you write. Keep writing and quit your bitching. Your book has a birthday. You don't know what it is yet. --Dear Sugar.

No matter how carefully we defend ourselves, all it takes is one footprint of another real person to recall us to the endlessly interesting hazards of living relationships. --Jonathan Franzen, from "Farther Away"

You too can be carved anew by the details of your devotions. --Mary Oliver

One of these days you'll be born and raised, and it's such a waste to grow up lonely. --John Mayer, from "Born and Raised"