“After the age of seven, I began living between my dad in Alaska and my mother in Baltimore. Every three or four months, I would fly the 5,000 miles between the two. And having grown up in Alaska, Baltimore was astonishing.” TwoAgeMotherThreeFourMonthsDadSevenMy DadMilesAstonishingAlaskaBaltimore Author:Leigh Newman
“The minute I landed back in Alaska, it was back to hip boots and fish guts. This cultural flipping wasn't easy - especially on top of the post-divorce fighting that was still going on between my parents. But this is why you don't write a memoir at age fourteen.” WritingStillsAgeFightingEasyParentMinutesFishesDivorceMemoirHipsPostsGutsBootsAlaskaFourteen Author:Leigh Newman
“The reason I could fit in with so many different kinds of people was that I had no self. And then the problem is, if you don't have a self, how can you be with other people? Who the hell are you with them?” PeopleIfsKindDifferentSelfReasonProblemHellFitDifferent Kinds Author:Leigh Newman
“I turned what was a wonderful case of self-reliance into a case of self-exile. Which is not uncommon, I think, in people who grow really early and have to learn how to take care of themselves. They have trouble hinging their lives with anybody else.” PeopleThinkingSelfCareGrowsCasesWonderfulTroubleTake CareSelf RelianceExileRelianceUncommon Author:Leigh Newman
“I'm pretty much of the Shakespearean school. Dialogue is character. How we speak is who we are.” CharacterSchoolSpeakDialogueWho We Are Author:Leigh Newman
“My mom was a social worker. I had a pretty good idea of what the authorities can do when a parent's not around.” IdeasSocialParentCan DoMomAuthorityWorkersMy MomGood IdeasSocial Worker Author:Leigh Newman
“I was an only child. And it's very much my temperament. I remember playing with a piece of string in my room for hours. I had never thought about what it would be like to have siblings.” ChildrenWould BeRememberHoursRoomsPiecesStringsTemperamentSiblingOnly Child Author:Leigh Newman
“I don't think many kids question their surroundings. Everything seems so permanent and inevitable growing up, even chaos.” ThinkingSeemsKidsGrowing UpGrowingChaosInevitablePermanentSurroundings Author:Leigh Newman
“After my parents divorced, my father remarried and my brothers were born when I was twelve and sixteen. I was thunderstruck at these kids. The "baby-ness" of them. Their toes. I had never been around babies before.” KidsFatherParentBornBrotherBabyMy BrotherTwelveToesDivorcedSixteen Author:Leigh Newman
“Often, I think that my brothers were the reason I didn't do something really stupid in my teenage years; I didn't want to disappoint them. Even though was I was pretty committed to disappointing everybody else.” ThinkingWantYearsReasonStupidBrotherCommittedMy BrotherTeenageDisappointDisappointingTeenage YearsReally Stupid Author:Leigh Newman