Top Quotes: “How To Be Alone” — Lane Moore
“I have never felt loved in the way I imagine many of you have, in my entire life. I wish I had felt loved. It seems pretty cool. That isn’t to say I haven’t had glimpses of what it might be like: the equivalent of shitty little face mask samples from Sephora — just enough to cover your forehead and part of your right cheek. Just enough to give you an idea of how great it could be if there had been more of it for a longer period of time.”
“I wish I could give you a clean and simple business card explaining what happened — like if my parents had a socially recognizable problem that explained their inability to take care of me and my sister. Example: ‘I have a cocaine-addicted dad and a mom who loved meth.’ Boom, no further details needed. But they don’t. And it’s not that simple. If your parent is an alcoholic, you don’t need to spend your whole life trying to figure out, wait a minute, holy shit, your parents actually were toxic after all — the big mystery is ‘Why am I like this?’ When it’s not that simple, it’s just that much easier to go your whole life thinking it’s just you: you’re too sensitive, you’re wrong, you need too much.”
“My extended family exists and I passively love most of them in the same way you might if you saw a childhood teacher at the grocery store who always seemed nice enough.”
“Most people who have conflicted relationships with their family members will smooth their feelings when they speak of them. They’ll tell you they’re close with them, they love them so much, so great. And then, just maybe, if you get them alone on a certain day, they’ll tell you they always felt alone, still feel alone, their family wasn’t great.”
“When you don’t have the affection and/or attachment you should have at home, it’s totally natural that you’d quickly become someone who is OBSESSED with FRIENDSHIPS. Kids with stable home lives can make friends in that casual, take ’em or leave ’em way, but you, poor you, will want to MAKE FRIENDS!!!!!!!!! in a desperate, gasping for air while drowning kind of way.”
“A straight boy will never come close to knowing my level of ‘I don’t have a shot with that girl’ pain. First of all, you do have a shot, because as far as you know, she’s straight or has been told to act straight. Second of all, all our lives, girls are told in not so many words that our main job is to please men, don’t embarrass them, don’t make them angry, give them what they ask for, be nice. So really, men technically ‘have a shot’ with literally every woman they see, because we’ve all been trained to give you one, or else we’re assholes.”
“Straight men’s instructions for finding a girlfriend are usually ‘Be born, wake up, brush your teeth (optional), and boom, you get girlfriend. Now relax and enjoy girlfriend!’”
