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21 " I have a pretty clear memory of most of that night, but even while it was happening, it was like a dream, where you do things you don't want to do but can't control your own actions. "
― , Early Work
22 " Did you ever have the problem where you don't want to go where you're supposed to be, but you can't go where you want to be? "
23 " the dreamy endlessness of the afternoons spent deep in her own mind. "
24 " So I did something that you're not supposed to do, one more addition to an expanding universe of said things. "
25 " You are . . . depressed? Bored?""Are there other feelings? "
26 " Unfortunately I'm one of those people who writes better when they're unhappy. "
27 " I was mad that I couldn't enjoy it, that I'd made it impossible for myself to have a nice vacation. "
28 " She'd become an idea. She was an abstract thing I wanted, a thing that I already had, really, if I could keep it. "
29 " The night felt forced, off-kilter. We were trying to have fun, fixating on what was available to us, but it was a stretch. "
30 " I do tend to like people in practice, even though I’ve built an airtight case against them in principle. "
31 " My goals at these things usually extended no further than making at least one moderately clever comment and trying not to spill anything on my shirt. "
32 " Leslie didn’t feel welcome, though she recognized that this was, again, mostly her problem. Wasn’t alienation always your own fault? People were what they were. You could either get in line and find a way to make it work or be a soul adrift upon the wandering etc. People could surprise you. People were interesting. The problem was you. "
33 " She really was an excellent host, however many people her family had enslaved and murdered. "
34 " New York, which I had complained about for so long, became a beacon, a place I missed terribly whenever I was away and then glutted myself on until I was sick when I came back. You move away from the city and suddenly everyone wants to have drinks. Nobody’ll hang out unless you leave. "