{"author":"Alexandra Kleeman","author_id":"Alexandra+Kleeman","total_quotes":33,"quotes":[{"text":"And as he leaned in to kiss me, my eye saw his open mouth grow larger and larger until it seemed it could swallow me whole.","author":"Alexandra Kleeman","tags":["alexandra-kleeman","creepy","intimations","kiss","metaphor","relationships"],"id":10087,"author_id":"Alexandra+Kleeman"},{"text":"She felt sad, but she hadn't cried all day. She thought that crying would actually be a good thing right now. It seemed normal to react. Whoever Martin had been, he had probably been a normal person. He was probably having a normal reaction right now, and she had caused it. She felt bad for confusing him. She thought it might be fair to cry for him. But it wasn’t until she thought of the mother cows in the pasture the day after the weaning, wandering around singly in the naked sunshine, still trying to call out in their hoarse, broken voices for the young ones that were still missing, that she was finally able to make herself cry—a little bit for all of the calves, but mostly for herself.","author":"Alexandra Kleeman","tags":["alexandra-kleeman","crying","intimations","reaction","sad"],"id":22949,"author_id":"Alexandra+Kleeman"},{"text":"There was nothing else I could do but say sorry myself. His apology had left a residue in me, a residue on my thinking, and continuing on in this house without saying it would be entirely awkward. It would turn the small space toxic. So I said it, though I tried to lessen the potency of the apology by mumbling.","author":"Alexandra Kleeman","tags":["alexandra-kleeman","apology","intimations","relationships"],"id":45184,"author_id":"Alexandra+Kleeman"},{"text":"Say something to it, he said.As I looked at the baby, I felt nothing taking shape in mind or mouth. I had no idea what the sort of things were that somebody would say to a baby. I had no idea why anyone would say anything to a baby. I held it carefully, as one would a sack of apples. And then, with him watching me, nodding encouragingly, I began to say to it, for lack of anything else to say, all the words I had ever known, in order.","author":"Alexandra Kleeman","tags":["alexandra-kleeman","baby","intimations","motherhood","speaking","words"],"id":51769,"author_id":"Alexandra+Kleeman"},{"text":"This feeling of lessening disturbance, coming from within myself, unexpected, was profoundly disturbing. As I sat still, growing less and less alarmed by the situation, I knew that I had to move fast, as fast and as far as I could within this small, cramped house.","author":"Alexandra Kleeman","tags":["alexandra-kleeman","complacent","intimations","metaphor","relationships","stifled","trapped","unhealthy-relationships"],"id":56421,"author_id":"Alexandra+Kleeman"},{"text":"My fiancé immediately began to look uncomfortable, but did not voice this discomfort except by a soft gurgling sound in the throat . . . The gurgling escalated, but my mother politely switched on the dishwasher, and soon we heard mostly the sound of machinery rather than that of a person's feelings surfacing.","author":"Alexandra Kleeman","tags":["alexandra-kleeman","commentary","feelings","intimations","metaphor","repression","satire","social-mores"],"id":57725,"author_id":"Alexandra+Kleeman"},{"text":"These masked men were going to bring me to a cleaner place, where things were more sharply distinguished from one another and where I would finally have the space to figure out who I was without other people nudging me all the time into shapes they thought I should have.","author":"Alexandra Kleeman","tags":["alexandra-kleeman","cult","finding-yourself","identity","pressure","self-discovery"],"id":59663,"author_id":"Alexandra+Kleeman"},{"text":"Maybe that was the secret to happiness, I thought, being free of the responsibility of yourself.","author":"Alexandra Kleeman","tags":["alexandra-kleeman","happiness","responsibility"],"id":76596,"author_id":"Alexandra+Kleeman"},{"text":"It seemed as though, being the only two people in this small, closed-in space, we couldn't help but have a relationship, and if we couldn't help but have a relationship, I felt that it was important to be upset now so that he would not shift the blame to me in the future.","author":"Alexandra Kleeman","tags":["alexandra-kleeman","dynamics","intimations","relationships"],"id":98487,"author_id":"Alexandra+Kleeman"},{"text":"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?","author":"Alexandra Kleeman","tags":["alexandra-kleeman","codependency","dependency","relationships","suffocating","unhealthy-relationships"],"id":118216,"author_id":"Alexandra+Kleeman"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":33,"pages":4,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}