“Drinking and taking drugs. I think there was also a sort of druggie or trance-like nature to the way that I used sex as a child.” ThinkingChildrenDrugDrinking Author:Claire Dederer
“When I was really sad, I would be like a little kid wiggling a loose tooth or touching a sore spot - there were things that I did to make myself sadder. It was almost as if I were luxuriant in my own melancholy. Looking at the diaries and thinking about my old self, thinking about my lost youth - that was part of that project of making myself totally miserable.” ThinkingKidsYouthMiserableMelancholyTouchingLittle KidReally SadOld Self Author:Claire Dederer
“I think that what I knew as a teenager, and what I rediscovered in my mid-forties, was - aside from the primacy of sexual desire and how strongly it rules me - this idea that we are lucky to feel something. Even if that something is sadness.” ThinkingDesireSadnessLuckyTeenager Author:Claire Dederer
“Your sexuality belongs to you, and think about your own desire.” ThinkingDesireSexuality Author:Claire Dederer
