83 Quotes by Alexandra Kleeman

People were such fragile things: they only existed from a certain angle, at a certain scale and spacing.

Tell me, is there someone in your life who’s been sharing your life too closely? A friend or a loved one? Is there someone who’s been taking up your time and not giving any of it back?

I was worried that there’d be emotional spillage, maybe even some tears, and comforting strangers always made me feel like a pervert.

Why can’t you just let people have their own inner lives, as long as they’re doing pretty much what they’re supposed to with their outer lives?

Scientists have confirmed that chemicals are present in nearly everything manufactured by natural or artificial means.

I feel like women bond with other women in this nonverbal way, where they take on each other's gestures. You start dressing more like each other, you eat the same food... It's a way of expressing regard: I want to be like you. Which is flattering, but if you view it another way, terrifying.

I'm really interested in passivity as a type of action - sort of allowing the situation to change you, choosing to give in being an act of agency rather than an act of submission.

When you seek out - or seek to avoid - your own reflection, the modern city becomes a hall of mirrors: car windows, reflective walls, and plate glass are everywhere, transmitting a cacophony of different versions of you - this one too short, that one too wide, another one with a sickly color you've never seen before.

When I started binge-watching TV, when that became a thing due to Netflix a few years ago, the first thing I watched was 'Lost.' It was summer break from grad school, and I watched it all in a row, like as many hours a day as I could, as though I were clocking in at a job.