AustLit

'When you write personally about intimate subjects, you expect to feel embarrassed. But I wasn’t prepared for the feelings of shame and raw vulnerability induced by crafting fiction. The subconscious reveals itself, exposing the writer whether they realise it or not.' (Introduction)

'For most of my adult life, I have believed that tenderness is a virtue. That if you can move through the world in touch with your emotions, you will be able to resist the some of the uglier shapes capitalism presses us into. No one had told me you could walk around being openly sensitive – not only having a lot of feelings, but telling your friends and family about them. I thought it was weird, and then I started practising my own beta-version of radical vulnerability, mostly pieced together from things I read on social media without much engagement with the serious intellectual works underpinning it. The results were still surprising: I felt better, then okay, and then sometimes even good. So I adopted it as personal philosophy, failing to ask any of the hard questions I should have.' (Introduction)

'There is something wrong with you. 

'The problem is it's a Monday morning, so you wake up. You put on some shoes, there's coffee, there's toast, you chew it. Light's coming through the windows for the first time in days, pale and understanding. You avoid mirrors anyway.' (Publication abstract)

'Whenever you build anything, you start with the parts.'