Clare > Books: anxiety-disorder‎ (9)

"I live my life in the small space between uncomfortable and awkward."

"Normal people don't need to prepare for social interactions. Normal people don't panic at the sight of strangers. Normal people don't want to cry because the plan they've processed in their head is suddenly not the plan that's going to happen."

"I'm too busy trying not to make eye contact with people while giving off the illusion that I am."

"The painting isn't about the starfish. It's about the girl who wants to venture out into the ocean, away from the starfish, so she can feel like she matters."

"It does not seem possible to think of oneself as normal without thinking that some other kind of person is pathological." - The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life (1999)

"I draw a girl shrinking into the grass until she's hidden by a bed of flowers that are all so much prettier than she is."

"I've never been around someone who" - he pauses - "reacts the way you do. You didn't used to be like this."

But I didn’t write this story for the people who need to be convinced.

I wrote it for the people who needed to see their own experiences brought to life. I wrote it to give them a voice — a mirror. I wrote it for the people who already know.

"It's times like this I miss speaking the most, these rand

"It's times like this I miss speaking the most, these random, meaningless conversations that could go anywhere."

"This is the only place where no one expects anything of me, the only place I can't disappoint anyone."

"The Urban Forest Plan is attempting to connect people with the trees to create a growing awareness of the importance of nature in urban environments."

"Why can't I live in a world where no one speaks and there's only the sound of the birds?"

"Hearts don't break like dropping a glass. They crack slowly, so you can feel each fracture."

"I am able to do this, starting now."