He always appreciated expensive things, as if consuming them would make him valuable.

What most people don’t understand about Jean-Michel is that his crazy behavior had nothing to do with being an enfant terrible. Everything he did was an attack on racism and I loved him for this.

If you were quiet about something then it never happened. Someone would write a song about it for sure. Everything you’re not supposed to know about, or talk about, eventually turned up in a song. Some.

Eli Redmond is the breeze that makes a hurricane form in the Atlantic.

Don’t cry over anything that can’t cry over you.

You can leave but you can always come back. You can live here again. Life can be a circle, not just a line.

I don’t believe in God. But I do believe that each of us has some sort of inner dynamic, that we are not always aware of, that guides us in life to witness certain profound things. These profound things change us forever and bring us closer to our ultimate selves. My relationship with Jean-Michel Basquiat and the death of Michael Stewart were experiences of this nature.

Don’t worry, honey, Suzanne’s mother says to Suzanne. One day you’ll set the world on fire.

But the reason I decided to go to New York was because I had seen Iggy Pop and I thought I had seen God. And because I had sent to Interview magazine for Rene Ricard’s first book of poetry, The Blue Book. I had never sent for anything before but something told me to do this. I had read that book over and over again like a Bible. I realized that a book can reach out and embrace you like an arm and make you walk away from everything you thought you understood.

You think you get a dose of tragedy and that’s that. You think it can’t get any worse and that you’re saved now. But tragedy is not like medicine. You don’t get a dose like a pill or a spoonful. Tragedy always kicks in.