“ But whatever I am, I know that slipperiness isn't all of it. I know now that a studied evasiveness has its own limitations, its own ways of inhibiting certain forms of happiness and pleasure. The plea… Maggie Nelson
“ But is there really such a thing as nothing, as nothingness? I don't now. I know we're still here, who knows for how long, ablaze with our care, its ongoing song. Maggie Nelson
“ This is the dysfunction talking. This is the disease talking. This is how much I miss you talking. This is the deepest blue, talking, talking, always talking to you. Maggie Nelson
“ Words change depending on who speaks them; there is no cure. The answer isn't just to introduce new words (boi, cis-gendered, andro-fag) and then set out to reify their meanings (though obviously ther… Maggie Nelson
“ For to wish to forget how much you loved someone-- and then, to actually forget-- can feel, at times, like the slaughter of a beautiful bird who chose, by nothing short of grace, to make a habitat of… Maggie Nelson
“ Girls are cruelest to themselves, observes Anne Carson in The Glass Essay, her brilliant long poem about the ravages of female anger, loneliness, grief, and desire, giving us as poetic adage what any… Maggie Nelson
“ Ik vind het grootmoedig van Butler dat ze de diffuse 'commodificatie van identiteit' aanmerkt als het probleem. Ik zou, minder grootmoedig, willen zeggen dat het simpele feit dat ze lesbisch is voor s… Maggie Nelson
“ I can remember a time when I took Henry James's advice--'try to be one of the people on whom nothing is lost!'--deeply to heart. I think I was then imagining that the net effect of becoming one of tho… Maggie Nelson
“ Perhaps because I have spent hours sermonizing to students about the sins of the passive voice—how it can obfuscate meaning, deaden vitality, and abandon the task of assigning agency or responsibility… Maggie Nelson
“ For blue has no mind. It is not wise, nor does it promise any wisdom. It is beautiful, and despite what the poets and philosophers and theologians have said, I think beauty neither obscures truth nor… Maggie Nelson
“ I will always aspire to contain my shit as best I can, but I am no longer interested in hiding my dependencies in an effort to appear superior to those who are more visibly undone or aching. Maggie Nelson
“ The mother of an adult child sees her work completed and undone at the same time.' If this holds true, I may have to withstand not only rage, but also my undoing. Can one prepare for one's undoing? Ho… Maggie Nelson
“ 238. I want you to know, if you ever read this, there was a time when I would rather have had you by my side than any one of these words; I would rather have had you by my side than all the blue in th… Maggie Nelson
“ Like many self-help books, The Deepest Blue is full of horrifyingly simplistic language and some admittedly good advice. Somehow the women in the book learn to say: That’s my depression talking. It’s… Maggie Nelson
“ One thing they don’t tell you ’bout the blues when you got ’em, you keep on fallin’ ’cause there ain't no bottom,' sings Emmylou Harris, and she may be right. Perhaps it would help to be told that the… Maggie Nelson
“ Perhaps I had inadvertently brushed up against the Buddhist axiom, that enlightenment is the ultimate disappointment. Maggie Nelson
“ You pass as a guy; I, as pregnant. Our waiter cheerfully tells us about his family, expresses delight in ours. On the surface, it may have seemed as though your body was becoming more and more “male,”… Maggie Nelson
“ I don't ever want to make the mistake of needing him as much as or more than he needs me. But there's no denying that sometimes, when we sleep together in the dark cavern of the bottom bunk, his big b… Maggie Nelson
“ [H]ow the force of one's adolescent curiosity and incipient lust often must war with the need to protect oneself from disgusting and wicked violators, how pleasure can coexist with awful degradation w… Maggie Nelson
