up

I still posit myself as someone who is trapped when vicious cycles kick in. But more and more I'm able to envisage something better to come and I'm able to imagine a better life for myself even now. 

things that matter

Objects in mirror may be closer than they seem. 

grates

I never really like the most critically acclaimed works. Like, Seven Nation Army is nowhere near Jack White's best song. I don't think it's even that good. Same for Bleak House. It's not the best of Dickens. And Brothers Karamazov. Maybe I just don't get Karamazov, but The Idiot and The Possessed were fire and, in my view, far better than Karamazov. 

sophistry

The truth wasn't fancy enough. She felt like she had to have a more sophisticated mythology. That made her feel special, when actually she was just deluded. 

a

Detox really 'took' with me. 

making it real is just part of the story

One of the things that made The Wire such a great and ground-breaking show was its realism. It's very hard to achieve that, because unvarnished reality doesn't make for good TV, and bottom-line, it's not real. It's fiction.