Author

I don't know where the idea originated that memoir writing is cathartic. For me, it's always felt like playing my own neurosurgeon, sans anesthesia. As a memoirist, you have to crack your head open and examine every uncomfortable thing in there.

From Koren Zailckas

Since I've quit drinking, I'm not sure I've found the good life, but I've certainly uncovered a better one.

From Koren Zailckas

If mothers are our first teachers, then having a narcissistic one teaches us that human closeness is terrifying, and the world is a heartless, inconsistent place.

From Koren Zailckas

We are taught to believe it's bad to be angry, or at least it's not good. That's not the case all throughout the world. People are more open and not embarrassed about it. For instance in Paris, people believe Americans have a really unhealthy relation with anger. They think it's essential to get angry.

From Koren Zailckas

I do think anger is so difficult for women. Girls think it undermines their femininity; it's not very ladylike.

From Koren Zailckas

As long as we depend on other women for self-esteem, using them as bad examples or fantasy versions - special, powerful - of ourselves, they remain stuck in a narcissistic version of themselves, too.

From Koren Zailckas

What makes a narcissistic mother so scary? Her absolute power and controlling influence. A narcissistic mother is your only 'friend,' at least until you're old enough to go to school.

From Koren Zailckas

My short stature may have something to do with my tendency to shout when enraged. How else is anyone going to hear me way down here?

From Koren Zailckas

I have been a ballerina, a cheerleader and a sorority girl. I was the girliest girl alive.

From Koren Zailckas

I grew up in a family that despised displays of strong emotion, rage in particular. We stewed. We sulked. When arguments did occur, they were full-scale conniptions, and we regarded them as family failings. Afterward, we withdrew from one another and tried our best to strike the event from our memories.

From Koren Zailckas

Koren Zailckas

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