James V

“But strict limits to intimacy are the straight man’s burden.”
― Jonathan Franzen, Purity

“A fact of my life was that I had a morbid fear of reproach, especially from women.”
― Jonathan Franzen, Purity

“The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it, useful only accidentally, only secondarily, in the way that any compulsion tries to justify itself. I suppose that it begins or does not begin in the cradle. Although I have felt compelled to write things down since I was five years old, I doubt that my daughter ever will, for she is a singularly blessed and accepting child, delighted with life exactly as life presents itself to her, unafraid to go to sleep and unafraid to wake up. Keepers of private notebooks are a different breed altogether, lonely and resistant rearrangers of things, anxious malcontents, children afflicted apparently at birth with some presentiment of loss.”
― Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem

“Women of color, queer women, and transgender women need to be better included in the feminist project.”
― Roxane Gay, Bad Feminist: Essays