“She loved the feeling of doing something on her own, and doing it in a routine. It felt thrillingly adult and affirmed her most cherished hope, the hope that she might have an actual inner life of substance and note.” LifeWomenGrowing UpSelf AwarenessRoutineWomen EmpowermentWorthSoloAlonenessAlone But Not Lonely Book:Ordinary Human Failings Source: Ordinary Human Failings
“You always think your pain is the most painful. You always think it's uniquely awful.” Pain Book:Acts of Desperation Source: Acts of Desperation
“I hate now for men to dote in this way, the ones who don't know me. Their praise lands uncertainly in the air somewhere between the two of us, because it doesn't belong to me. I hate to hear them tell me what I am, even or especially when what they think I am is kind or brilliant or beautiful. I hate when they insist that I have no faults, that my laziness or violence or cruelty simply don't exist. When they speak this way I am even less in my body than usual, feeling the sickness of a stranger look me in the eye and describe what is not there. What I am feeling is their disregard for my reality. I am being made to wear whatever particular fantasy they wish to project. Each time it happens I have to restrain myself from screaming in their faces to prove I am not what they believe me to be. In these moments I am happy with my ugliness and want them to see it. Whatever badness I am I want to be it, to be as much like whatever my self is as possible; as far from the stranger's projection as possible.” MenSelfStrangerProjectionActs Of Desperation Book:Acts of Desperation Source: Acts of Desperation
“He had the sort of bland, agreeable, rosy face which could disappear into whatever context he wished it to. He was blond but not provocatively so. The naturally dull Kent accent could be clipped and made horsey if he was trying to get to a society party, and his father’s East End adopted with relative ease when he wanted to be taken as working class.” ClassJournalism Book:Ordinary Human Failings Source: Ordinary Human Failings