I could not kick heroin to save my life, literally, until I started telling my secrets. It was some of the clearest evidence I've ever found of anyth…

- Melissa Febos

Torch songs are confessions. They are an expression of feeling that cannot be concealed or contained or minimized. They are marked by anguish, yes, b…

- Melissa Febos

Anyone who makes a life of what they love is a hero to me, and it's important for those people to be visible in every kind of life, every kind of lov…

- Melissa Febos

I absolutely think that women told that writing about themselves is somehow not worthy enough for a public audience all the time. I hear it so often …

- Melissa Febos

I do believe that we all have these stories inside of us, these scars that we compulsive worry as we do wounds, and that drive for redemption, to cha…

- Melissa Febos

Behaviors and lifestyles that are classified as "normal" rarely get so generalized, public perception of heterosexual relationships, for instance, or…

- Melissa Febos

It has been my experience that the people I judge most harshly are the ones in whom I recognize some part of myself.

- Melissa Febos

I didn't know enough as a writer to understand why I needed to do this, but I understood in a very gut way that I could not entertain those thoughts …

- Melissa Febos

I can still discern people's weaknesses, but it doesn't make me want to exploit them; it makes me want to hug them.

- Melissa Febos