“Despair was strength. Despair was the scab and the scar. The walled city in a time of plague. A closed fortification. A sure thing, because it was always safer, less painful to stop trying than it was to repeatedly try and fail. Failure-disappointment-was a poison in my blood. Despair was the antidote.”

American writer

Norah Vincent was an American writer known for her columns and essays in major newspapers and magazines. She wrote regularly for the Los Angeles Times, The Advocate, The Village Voice, and Salon.com, and her work also appeared in The New Republic, The New York Times, the New York Post, and The Washington Post. She drew wide attention in 2006 with Self-Made Man, a book based on her eighteen months living as a man. Her writing moved across politics, culture, and public life, with a reporter’s eye for experience and identity.