Kerry Cohen · 210 pages
Rating: (9.5K votes)
“I don’t want to be in pain anymore. I want to be done, to be left unburdened and naked, to tear the hurt off my body like layers of clothes. At the end of the trail I stop and bend forward, hands on my knees, to catch my breath. I’m not healed, but for this moment, I’m better.”
― Kerry Cohen, quote from Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity
“He remains kind, but a feeling nags at me, staying with me long after I leave. And it's this: It doesn't matter what I did to him. He can choose to remain detached, untouched by me. Something I can't do back.”
― Kerry Cohen, quote from Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity
“I love the idea that a family doesn't need so much stuff to be whole, that perhaps there are other ways to feel full.”
― Kerry Cohen, quote from Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity
“I’ve been grasping at nothing, running in circles, trying desperately to fill the emptiness inside with nothing but air. If I think about it too much, I feel shame, so much shame. So I don’t.”
― Kerry Cohen, quote from Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity
“I begin to learn there are certain things I shouldn't tell her. Like when we meet boys at Dorrian's and I give mine a blow job, or the time I messed around with a boy in the back near the bathrooms. Amy wants to be intimate with boys too, but to her this kind of conduct is slutty. I suppose it is. She, like most girls, including the Jennifers, has a different relationship to boys than I do. She engages in sexual acts with them if she wants, but from my vantage point it looks like she can take them or leave them if they are not just right. She considers whether she actually likes someone before she jumps into bed with him. She isn't wracked with anxiety when there aren't any boys around. And she doesn't need them to live, which is what it feels like for me.”
― Kerry Cohen, quote from Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity
“It's just I'd rather sleep through the days so I'll be awake for the nights, when the boys are out.”
― Kerry Cohen, quote from Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity
“Artist colonies are notorious for breaking up marriages and housing affairs.”
― Kerry Cohen, quote from Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity
“Can I cuddle up with you when you sleep?”
Sma stopped, detached the creature from her shoulder with one hand and stared it in the face. “What?”
“Just for chumminess’ sake,” the little thing said, yawning wide and blinking. “I’m not being rude; it’s a good bonding procedure.”
Sma was aware of Skaffen-Amtiskaw glowing red just behind her. She brought the yellow and brown device closer to her face. “Listen, Xenophobe—”
“Xeny.”
“Xeny. You are a million-ton starship. A Torturer class Rapid Offensive Unit. Even—”
“But I’m demilitarized!”
“Even without your principle armament, I bet you could waste planets if you wanted to—”
“Aw, come on; any silly GCU can do that!”
“So what’s all this shit for?” She shook the furry little remote drone, quite hard. Its teeth chattered.
“It’s for a laugh!” it cried. “Sma, don’t you appreciate a joke?”
“I don’t know. Do you appreciate being drop-kicked back to the accommodation area?”
“Ooh! What’s your problem, lady? Have you got something against small furry animals, or what?” Look Ms. Sma, I know very well I’m a ship, and I do everything I’m asked to do—including taking you to this frankly rather fuzzily specified destination—and do it very efficiently, too. If there was the slightest sniff of any real action, and I had to start acting like a warship, this construct in your hands would go lifeless and limp immediately, and I’d battle as ferociously and decisively as I’ve been trained to. Meanwhile, like my human colleagues, I amuse myself harmlessly. If you really hate my current appearance, all right; I’ll change it; I’ll be an ordinary drone, or just a disembodied voice, or talk to you through Skaffen-Amtiskaw here, or through your personal terminal. The last thing I want is to offend a guest.”
Sma pursed her lips. She patted the thing on its head and sighed. “Fair enough.”
“I can keep this shape?”
“By all means.”
“Oh goody!” It squirmed with pleasure, then opened its big eyes wide and looked hopefully at her. “Cuddle?”
“Cuddle.” Sma cuddled it, patted its back.
She turned to see Skaffen-Amtiskaw lying dramatically on its back in midair, its aura field flashing the lurid orange that was used to signal Sick Drone in Extreme Distress.”
― Iain M. Banks, quote from Use of Weapons
“Little by little, the old world crumbled, and not once did the king imagine that some of the pieces might fall on him.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, quote from Revolution
“¡Por la Galaxia! ¿Cuándo puede saber un hombre que no es un títere? ¿Cómo puede saber un hombre que no es un títere?”
― Isaac Asimov, quote from The Foundation Trilogy
“There's one good thing about getting in trouble: It seems like you do it in steps. It seems like you don't just end up in trouble but that you kind of ease yourself into it. It also seems like the worse the trouble is that you get into, the more steps it takes to get there. Sort of like you're getting a bunch of little warnings on the way; sort of like if you really wanted to you could turn around.”
― Christopher Paul Curtis, quote from The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963
“I try to make everyone's day a little more surreal.”
― Bill Watterson, quote from The Essential Calvin and Hobbes: A Calvin and Hobbes Treasury
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