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1 " Agnes always wanted to go out. Out was better than in. In was inside, in was interior, in was introspection. "
― Kate Zambreno , Green Girl
2 " The green girl necessarily pines for the past, because the present is too uncomfortable to be present in and the future, unimaginable. The need to long, to desire that which she cannot have, that which has eluded her, because she deceives herself that it was this person, this chance, where she would have found happiness. "
3 " What does she want to be? A green girl doesn't like to consider this question. She is waiting around to be discovered just for being herself. "
4 " Sometimes she is struck by how much she goes through life almost unconsciously. She is being swept along. She is a pale ghost. "
5 " Sometimes she narrates her actions inside her head in third-person. Does that make her a writer or a woman? "
6 " Ruth loved color so much she rarely wore any. Except on her face. "
7 " What is it with young women and exclamation points and smiley faces! So afraid of appearing somber, always wanting to appear light and happy and sparkling, even when they are dying inside. Not ever being able to escape the mask that smiles. She wants to write, really write someday. But she is not fully formed. So she does not write. Not really. Unless attempting to live is a form of attempting to write. The agony of becoming. This is what she experiences. The young girl. She would like to be someone, anyone else. She wants, vaguely, to be something more than she is. But she does not know what that is, or how one goes about doing such a thing. "
8 " We live in such fear of puncturing the moment, of forgetting our lines. "
9 " Sometimes she forces herself under water. She pretends she’s dead. She pretends she has drowned. She is Millais’ Ophelia floating down a stream, clutching flowers. The painting hangs in the Tate Britain. "
10 " The passivity of the green girl masquerades as politeness "
11 " What is it with young women and exclamation points and smiley faces! So afraid of appearing somber, always wanting to appear light and happy and sparkling, even when they are dying inside. Not ever being able to escape the mask that smiles. "
12 " It is again the season for a woman with a strong identity, the magazine tells Ruth. Could she, did she have it in her to update her visual sense of herself? "
13 " The most important part of an introduction always occurs in one's absence. "
14 " Ruth's days off always oppress her. The realm of choice paralyzes her. To sleep is to choose neither life nor death. "
15 " She couldn’t remember how to talk, how to socialize outside of her head. "
16 " I want to go to a church she thinks. I want to sit in a church and let the white light bathe me. It doesn’t matter what church, what religion. It would be best if I did not understand the mumbling pleas directed up high. I want to go to a church and direct my eyes up high and open my arms open my arms up to the ceiling.And scream. And scream. And scream. "
17 " She is an actress. She is playing herself. She is ready for her screen test. "
18 " Later, when we look back at ourselves, we marvel at our emptiness, our youth. The shiny surface. We forget the confused upheaval stirring deep within back then, a revolution that we stifled daily. "
19 " She could be described in the language of growing things. She is a tender sapling. She is green, she is fresh (yet the freshest ingénues can carry with them the most depraved resumes). "
20 " When Ruth is feeling her emptiest, the empty compliments keep on pouring in. She craves the attention but grows nauseous. "
