Matt

I am a disillusioned yet optimistic college drop-out, dreamer type. I take pretty much everything seriously, then immediately make light of it as much as possible.

Life is not supposed to be about the rat race. It's easy to miss the joy that way.

I'm sort of Ally McBeal meets Holden Caulfield, except I'm not as successful as Ally McBeal and I'm not as young as Holden Caulfield. When I grow up, I want to be Albus Dumbledore.

Oh yeah, and I kick it old school and new school, bitches.

I was born in "the year of the yuppie" according to Newsweek, but at least 1984 wasn't as Orwellian as Orwell described (the PATRIOT Act didn't happen for another 17 years). I look at the 1980's and think, "Come on, y'all. We were on a roll. Where did all the hippies go?" I would have loved to have been in San Francisco in 1967 for the Human Be-In, at Woodstock in 1969, and around for pretty much anything in the 1970's, except that in retrospect it would be kind of pathetic, being there not knowing that in the next decade everybody was going to stop thinking with open minds again. The 1980's...there were a few good movies, Oprah was awesome as always, music videos were interesting, and there were personal computers and the NES. And I didn't really mind big hair. But that's about all I can say for 'em.

As far as the present goes, if I could sum up my criticism of American culture in two sentences, it would be this: The youth of our nation needs to tear their heads off of MTV and out of their own butts enough to actually devote some brain time to the issues facing society and the environment, and those well into their adulthood lucky enough to have had financial success need to be less paranoid about what affects their purse when they consider said issues. The youth has been too spoiled in terms of what has been handed to them, and the elders have been too spoiled in terms of the distance they keep from the global ramifications of their lifestyles.

Among other things, you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them—if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry.

– J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

...they rushed down the street together digging everything in the early way they had which has later now become so much sadder and perceptive.. but then they danced down the street like dingledodies and I shambled after as usual as I've been doing all my life after people that interest me, because the only people that interest me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like roman candles across the night.

– Jack Kerouac

I guess there have been a few questions about my sexuality, and I'd like to quiet any unnecessary rumors that may be out there. While I prefer to keep my personal life private, I hope the fact that I'm gay isn't the most interesting part of me.

– T.R. Knight