So I pull Tifanny closer, kiss the hard spot between her perfectly plucked eyebrows, and after a deep breath, I say, "I think I need you too.

There will always be a part of me that is dirty and sloppy, but I like that, just like all the other parts of myself.

Cliff says Sylvia Plath's work is very depressing to read, and that his own daughter had recently suffered through The Bell Jar because she is taking an American literature course at Eastern High School.

"And you didn't complain to administration?" I asked.

"About what?"

"About your daughter being forced to read such depressing stories."

"No. Of course not. Why would I?"

"Because the novel teaches kids to be pessimistic. No hope at the end, no silver lining. Teenagers should be taught that--"

"Life is hard, Pat, and children have to be told how hard life can be."

"Why?"

"So they will be sympathetic to others. So they will understand that some people have it harder than they do and that a trip through this world can be a wildly different experience, depending on what chemicals are raging through one's mind.

And I still love you in my own fucked-up way. I miss you, I really do. Can we still be friends?

Look, sometimes it’s OK with girls like this, they wanna have fun, and sometimes it’s not because they've got a broken wing and they’re hurt and they’re an easy target. In this case, this particular case, I think that wing is being fixed, my friend, and you gotta make sure that it’s mended and you’re getting in the way of that right now, okay, because she’s sensitive and she’s smart, she’s artistic. This is a great girl, you gotta be respectful to that. Come on, let me walk you to your car, you’re a better guy than this.

When I wrote 'Silver Linings,' I thought I was writing a book about the Philadelphia Eagles and male bonding, but when the book came out, it was surprising to me that the mental health community embraced it.