“Very few women have become famous for being who they actually are, nuanced and imperfect. When honesty happens, it's usually couched in self-ridicule or self-help. Dunham doesn't apologize like that-she simply tells her story as if it might be interesting. The result is shocking and radical because it is utterly familiar. Not That Kind of Girl is hilarious, artful, and staggeringly intimate; I read it shivering with recognition.” IfsKindSelfHelpingStoriesMightHappensGirlInterestingResultsSelf HelpHonestyFamiliarRecognitionRadicalIntimateImperfectApologizingShockingRidiculeKind Of Girl Author:Miranda July
“When you're not doing fiction, there's a limit to how much illustrating you can do with your work. I mean, you can do fine. There are great non-fiction writers, but people aren't necessarily going to say anything that reveals them as much as a picture might. Even their surroundings, in lot of cases, the things that meant the most to me were the things I noticed in their houses. I was always looking, as much as I was listening to them. I was looking around for clues as to why I was there.” PeopleMeanMightHouseCan DoFictionCasesListeningFineLimitsSay AnythingClueSurroundingsNon FictionFiction WritersIllustrating Author:Miranda July
“The idea that you might end up in a job that doesn't allow you to be who you are, over the course of a lifetime, is still one of the most chilling nightmares to me. It's a good metaphor for fears I have about losing my soul in some accidental, mundane way. So, to me, these jobs that my characters have are very loaded. They immediately suggest a complex character to me, a woman who is, say, a secretary, but also a vigilante on behalf of her own soul.” WayWritingStillsIdeasSoulEndsCharacterMightJobsCoursesLosingWho You AreLifetimeComplexesMetaphorMy SoulNightmareSecretaryBehalfChillMundaneLoadedBe Who You AreVigilanteComplex Characters Author:Miranda July
“Are you angry? Punch a pillow. Was it satisfying? Not hardly. These days people are too angry for punching. What you might try is stabbing. Take an old pillow and lay it on the front lawn. Stab it with a big pointy knife. Again and again and again. Stab hard enough for the point of the knife to go into the ground. Stab until the pillow is gone and you are just stabbing the earth again and again, as if you want to kill it for continuing to spin, as if you are getting revenge for having to live on this planet day after day, alone.” PeopleIfsWantTryingHardEnoughBigsMightEarthGoneFrontsPlanetsAngryLaysRevengeThese DaysSatisfyingKnivesAgain And AgainContinuingPillowLawnsPunchingStabbingGetting Revenge Author:Miranda July
“Sometimes I would make left turns all the way around a block, and when I returned to the original intersection, I would feel disappointed to find all the drivers were new. It wasn't like a square dance, where you miraculously end up with your original partner, laughing and feeling giddily relieved to find him after dancing with everyone else in the world. Instead, they swung around and kept on going, some people were at work by now, or halfway to the airport. In fact, driving might be the thing most opposite of dancing.” PeopleWorldWayFeelsEndsSometimesFactsFeelingsMightTurnsLeftLaughingOppositesOriginalsDancingPartnersDrivingBlockDriversDisappointedSquaresAirportsHalfwayRelievedIntersections Book:No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories Source: No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories
“The things keeping you back-these embarrassing, boring, stupid obstacles-are the heart of what it is to be human. They’re the whole reason for making and needing art. So you might as well go ahead and begin in whatever way you can right now.” WayHumansWellsHeartArtReasonWholeMightStupidRight NowObstaclesBoringEmbarrassing Author:Miranda July
“After I had my son I looked everywhere for a book that might serve as some kind of mirror. I bought so many silly books. Now I see what the problem was: I wanted a book about time-about mortality. I can't think of a writer who is at once so experimentally daring and so rigorously uncompromising as Sarah Manguso. Ongoingness is an incredibly elegant, wise book, and I loved it.” ThinkingKindI CanBookProblemMightWantedWiseSonMirrorsSillyMy SonMortalityDaringElegantUncompromising Author:Miranda July
“I realize that we all think we might be terrible people. But we only reveal this before we ask someone to love us. It is a kind of undressing.” PeopleThinkingKindMightAsksRealizingTerribleUndressing Book:The First Bad Man Source: The First Bad Man
