Chris D

“Self-awareness paradoxically requires an awareness of the other.”
― Charlie Jane Anders, All the Birds in the Sky

“I am unflappable,” Laurence told the bus driver. Who shrugged, as if he’d thought so too, once upon a time, until someone had flapped him.”
― Charlie Jane Anders, All the Birds in the Sky

“There’s nothing wrong with being happy. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying something so much that it strips away all that irony and cynicism. And there’s nothing wrong with loving anything so much that it feels like it could pull your heart out of your chest and toss it on the floor. We build ourselves up to not do that, and then we build up the armor so thickly that we have trouble finding what’s underneath. We use that as an excuse to lash out at people who do feel stuff, who do like things (and I am, of course, mostly saying this about myself). It’s hard sometimes to remember that the world isn’t a place to glide through, so nothing can touch you. It’s a place to be experienced.”
― Emily Todd VanDerWerff

“But the real point is, how do you ever know your own emotions are spontaneous and genuine, and not just a programmed set of responses?”
― Charlie Jane Anders, All the Birds in the Sky