I guess in life I find people who, at first glance, appear to be very typical or average, whatever that means, and then turn out to have hidden qualities. Curtis Sittenfeld More Quotes by Curtis Sittenfeld More Quotes From Curtis Sittenfeld The big occurrences in life, the serious ones, have for me always been nearly impossible to recognize because they never feel big or serious. In the moment, you have to pee, your arm itches, or what people are saying strikes you as melodramatic or sentimental, and it's hard not to smirk. You have a sense of what this type of situation should be like - for one thing, all-consuming - and this isn't it. But then you look back, and it was that; it did happen. Curtis Sittenfeld sentimental serious people I think that there's some confusion in my own mind about what I believe. Curtis Sittenfeld confusion believe thinking The better you learn to take care of yourself, the less you settle for being around people who can't or won't treat you as well as you're accustomed. Curtis Sittenfeld settling care people She nodded, jotting something in her notebook. You’re writing that down? Has the interview started?” Lee, whenever you’re talking to a reporter, you’re being interviewed. Curtis Sittenfeld notebook writing talking Later on, when I tried to imagine how I might have ruined things, that would occur to me - that I'd so rarely resisted, that I hadn't made it hard enough for him. Maybe it was like gathering your strength and hurling your body against a door you believe to be locked, and then the door opens easily - it wasn't locked at all - and you're standing looking into the room, trying to remember what it was you thought you wanted. Curtis Sittenfeld doors trying believe Ironically, writing a novel is not a way to sort out your confusion. Curtis Sittenfeld confusion writing way There are so many people who are so much better qualified to write about politics than I am. Curtis Sittenfeld qualified writing people Well, I think in my first two novels, both the characters are pretty neurotic, which I would say that I am. Curtis Sittenfeld character two thinking When I was writing my first two books I was also freelancing and teaching and doing other odd jobs. Curtis Sittenfeld teaching jobs book It is not a camera, or a reporter that makes something real and genuine; more often a camera or a reporter does the opposite. Curtis Sittenfeld cameras real opposites I have always found the times when another person recognizes you to be strangely sad; I suspect the pathos of these moments is their rareness, the way they contrast with most daily encounters. That reminder that it can be different, that you need not go through your life unknown but that you probably still will--that is the part that's almost unbearable. Curtis Sittenfeld encounters different needs At that time in my life, no conclusion was a bad conclusion. Something ended, and you stopped wishing and worrying. You could consider your mistakes, and you might be embarrassed by them, but the box was sealed, the door was shut, you were no longer immersed in the confusing middle. Curtis Sittenfeld mistake worry doors ..and I thought how liking a boy was just the same as believing you wanted to know a secret - everything was better when you were denied and could feel tormented by curiousity or loneliness. But the moment of something happening was treacherous. It was just so tiring to have to worry about whether your face was peeling, or to have to laugh at stories that weren’t funny. Curtis Sittenfeld loneliness boys believe Is the depressing part that he's only half right - it's not that she doesn't need rescuing but that nobody else will be able to do it? She has always somehow known that she is the one who will have to rescue herself. Or maybe what's depressing is that this knowledge seems like it should make life easier, and instead it makes it harder. Curtis Sittenfeld depressing half needs She was the reason I was a reader, and being a reader was what had made me most myself; it had given me the gifts of curiosity and sympathy, an awareness of the world as an odd and vibrant contradictory place, and it had me unafraid of its oddness and vibrancy and contradictions. Curtis Sittenfeld vibrancy curiosity world What greater happiness is there than the privilege of being bored together? Curtis Sittenfeld privilege bored together I wanted to hold happiness in reserve, like a bottle of champagne. I postponed it because I was afraid, because I overvalued it, and then I didn't want to use it up, because what do you wish for then? Curtis Sittenfeld bottles use wish I gave people the benefit of the doubt, thinking, so many people that appear very calm and even boring must have all these wild emotions and crazy ideas. Curtis Sittenfeld crazy ideas thinking She has always been a bystander in family destruction, never realizing she herself possessed the capacity to inflict it. Curtis Sittenfeld bystanders realizing destruction Before and after... I heard a thousand times that a boy, or a man, can't make you happy, that you have to be happy on your own before you can be happy with another person. All I can say is, I wish it were true. Curtis Sittenfeld wish men boys
