The Passenger

You can never see anything clearly when you're running.

the best way to hide in plain sight was to get fat.

Sometimes fear and dread are superior to tedium.

What was she like in the end? The way most people are at the end. Scared and full of regret. The way you are all of the time.

It’s always good to go home.

I want you to write one page on what you want to be when you grow up, and then one page on what you want to be if that first thing doesn’t work out, because sometimes things don’t work out the way we’d like them to. Then another page on what you’d do if the first two things you’d like to be don’t work out. Then two pages on the one thing you definitely don’t want to be no matter what. It’s really important not to let the bottom drop out of your life.

There was a time I used to cry, but that was another lifetime ago. My heart was broken just once. But completely. As

because that’s what you do, you keep trying even when you know the effort is in vain. As

Men are so easily drawn to fake things.

I ordered a beer, opened the newspaper, and realized the light was all wrong for reading. Still, if you're a woman sitting alone in a bar, it's always best to look occupied, even if you're faking it. Most men think they're doing you a favor, keeping you company, curing you of the shame of being alone in public. It didn't take long for a fellow traveler to take a seat next to mine. I tensed my shoulders and raised the newspaper in a defensive posture. Some men would have read my body language for what it was - an indisputable DO NOT DISTURB sign. But some men can only read their internal weather report and have no concept that another human might not want the same things they want.