You seize your freedom in a spirit of rebelliousness, exuberance, defiant joy. But to live that choice — over the weeks and months and years to come — requires different qualities. It requires that you turn hard, turn rigid. Because it isn't a choice that the world encourages, you have to wear a suit of armor to defend it.

Starting Out in the Evening (ed. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007) - ISBN: 9780547451596