About six months ago I was buying coffee by my office and I started talking to the barista. The coffee joint I frequent was playing the Beastie Boys and that’s what got us started. The barista then asked me what I did. “I’m a therapist,” I said. “I work down…

“It really is infuriating,” said Steven, taking off his glasses and pinching the space between his eyes. “I’ve accomplished a lot in my life. And I still do. The last book, critically, I couldn’t have asked for better reviews. And this new one, I’m really excited about this one. When…

“Are you stripping?” my girlfriend asked me. She stared at the money clip I’d thrown on her coffee table. A crisp fifty dollar bill was folded underneath the clasp. “What are you talking about?” I asked—aiming for casual, but sounding guilty. “Something is going on,” she said. “Even when you’re…

There’s a weird thing that happens when you grow up around a lot of anger. You end up feeling like a cow that’s allergic to milk. You have this thing coarsing through you, that you produce. And it’s also the thing that destroyed you, that made you toxic; and therefore toxic to…