Judy

“One time on an island I swam in a green lagoon and saw through the clearness of the water the simple fact of my limbs. I watched the purple, red, and blue fish moving around my body and I paddled to keep myself afloat for a long time. Afterward, I lay down on the sand and concentrated on the warming my kneecaps and my shoulders. I can count moments like that on my hands. My dream is for you to have many such moments, so many that you notice only the times you slip into your own brain and recognize those instances for the traps that they are.”
― Lisa Taddeo, Animal

“I don’t want you to continue the cycle of hate. I’ve been called a whore. I’ve been judged not only by the things I have done unto others but cruelly, by the things that happened to me. I envy the people who judge me. Those who live their lives in a neat predictable manner. The right college, the right house, the right time to move to a bigger one. The prescribed number of children, which sometimes is two and other times is three I would bet most of the people had not been through one percent of what I have.”
― Lisa Taddeo, Animal

“The world had set me up to believe that it was women who went mad. It was simply women’s pain that manifested as madness.”
― Lisa Taddeo, Animal

“I saw the rape in his eyes. I was wearing my white dress and laughed to myself, thinking how anyone would say I kept asking for it. I’d opined often with other women and with men that every man has a degree of rape in him. Women didn’t understand what I meant. They were alternately disgusted and confused. They thought I was stupid. But the men didn’t. I think they were impressed that I understood.”
― Lisa Taddeo, Animal