I can't remember a time when I wasn't trying to figure out what to say at the dinner table. Leslie Jamison More Quotes by Leslie Jamison More Quotes From Leslie Jamison Empathy is cloaked in our actions - as in, we might be experiencing empathy but not realize it's empathy. Leslie Jamison our-actionsempathymight Learning the edges or limits or sources of friction in empathy was one of the big issues for me. Leslie Jamison empathyissueslimits In my own life as a reader I experience real moments of alienation when a writer feels too perfect, or like even the flaws they are admitting are somehow noble, or dysfunctional in an overly edgy, aesthetically pleasing way. Leslie Jamison admittingrealperfect When people ask what kind of nonfiction I write, I say 'all kinds,' but really I mean I don’t write any kind at all: I’m trying to dissolve the borders between memoir and journalism and criticism by weaving them together. Leslie Jamison writingmeanpeople Perhaps if we say it straight, we suspect, if we express our sentiments too excessively or too directly, we'll find we're nothing but banal. Leslie Jamison suspectssentimentsifs Whatever we can’t hold, we hang on a hook that will hold it. Leslie Jamison hook We think we should have to work in order to feel. We want to have our cake resist us; and then we want to eat it, too. Leslie Jamison should-haveorderthinking Post-wounded women know that postures of pain play into limited and outmoded conceptions of womanhood. Their hurt has a new native language spoken in several dialects: sarcastic, jaded, opaque; cool and clever. They guard against those moments when melodrama or self-pity might split their careful seams of intellect, expose the shame of self-absorption without self-awareness. Leslie Jamison sarcastichurtclever I needed people to deliver my feelings back to me in a form that was legible. Which is a superlative kind of empathy to seek, or to supply: an empathy that rearticulates more clearly what it's shown. Leslie Jamison empathyfeelingspeople You pass the old L.A. County jail, which is surprisingly beautiful. It's got a handsome stone facade and stately columns. The new L.A. County jail - called The Twin Towers - isn't beautiful at all; it's a stucco panopticon the color of sick flesh. Leslie Jamison jailcolorbeautiful After finishing a draft, no matter how rough, I almost always put it aside for a while. It doesn't matter if it's a story or a novel, I find that when it's still fresh in my mind I'm either thoroughly sick of its flaws or completely blind to them. Either way, I'm unable to make substantive edits of any value. Leslie Jamison finishingsickmind Armchair poverty tourism has been around as long as authors have written about class. As an author, I have struggled myself with the nuances of writing about poverty without reducing any community to a catalog of its difficulties. Leslie Jamison writingclasslong Sometimes I do feel exposed. I have this kind of theory about different channels or levels of relaying experience - when I tell someone, one on one, in a personal context, about something that's happened to me - that has a very different valence, a different charge, than when/if I've said it in a public forum. Leslie Jamison levelsdifferentkind There's something about that puritanical narrative of progress and upward mobility and work ethic that the glorification of abstinence fits pretty neatly into. That pairs with the fact that 12-step recovery has had too large a monopoly on how treatment is understood in America. Leslie Jamison progresswork-ethicworkamerica One of the big ways in which I felt my own writing life shaped by recovery had to do with my relationship to other people's stories. And one of the things I loved most about recovery was the way in which, in meetings and through fellowship, you are constantly kind of paying attention to lives outside of your own. Leslie Jamison yourelationshiplifepeople Somebody once asked me how I define sobriety, and my response was 'liberation from dependence.' Leslie Jamison somebodyhowmesobriety Whenever we feel shame, it's a mark of some deep investment or deep internal struggle. Leslie Jamison deepfeelshamestruggle Probably every person is some mixture of wanting to feel a sense of commonality and shared experience with others but also wanting to feel completely singular and unique. Leslie Jamison personfeelexperienceunique The 'here' of Watts is pastel houses with window gratings in curly patterns. 'Here' is yard sales with bins full of stuffed animals and used water guns. Here is Crips turf. Leslie Jamison curlyanimalswaterwindow Redeeming subjects from cliche is its own pleasure and privilege. Leslie Jamison ownprivilegesubjectspleasure
