“What is most important—what is hardest and also most important—is to be natural. Humans have a difficult time with “natural." We are better at "interesting" or "beautiful" or "forceful" than we are at "natural." Everything is an exertion, everything is performance. One of the reasons I have lived on Christopher Street for as long as I have is that I know how to be natural there. I can sit at the table. I can cook an egg. And once you have found the way to be natural, the rest of what's important can be layered over top: lucidity, beauty, force.”