May

“The thing I didn't expect was telling her about me would force me to look at myself, at the way I craved the love of men who would never love me. At the way I could not abide women who needed me. At the way I destroyed some while allowing others to destroy me. I felt sick with myself and, at the same time, unburdened. I thought I'd been honest with myself. But I hadn't. I'd been telling myself ghost stories my whole life.”
― Lisa Taddeo, Animal

“Somehow, because of how much warmer my father was on the whole, I think I metabolized it to mean that men can ruin you in wonderful ways, like lurid, bright jawbreakers with beautiful rainbow specks.”
― Lisa Taddeo, Animal

“I can tell you a lot about sex with a man to whom you are not attracted. It becomes all about your own performance…while it was happening I wasn’t aware of how it was affecting me. I didn’t notice until several years later, when three showers a day were not enough”
― Lisa Taddeo, Animal

“that love was a
distinctly human defect which God had created to counterbalance the power
of human greed.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona