“
She was doing that thing some people do when they act nice and chipper and interested, while just below the surface they’re thinking really mean thoughts, and you can never call them on it because they’d just accuse you of being paranoid.
”
”
Cecily von Ziegesar (The It Girl (It Girl, #1))
“
Sometimes I felt that growing up and being a girl was about learning to be afraid. Not paranoid, exactly, but always alert and aware, like checking out the exits in the movie theatre or the fire escape in a hotel. You came to know, in a way you hadn't as a kid, that the body you inhabited was vulnerable, imperfectly fortified. On TV, in the papers, in books and movies, it isn't ever men being raped or kidnapped or bludgeoned or dismembered or burned with acid. But in stories and crime shows and TV series and movies and in life too, it's going on all the time, all around you. So you learn, in your mind, that your body needs to be protected. It's both precious and totally dispensable, depending on whom you encounter.
”
”
Claire Messud (The Burning Girl)
“
In Paranoid Park there is this Punk girl that keeps looking straight into The camera when she speaks, It’s like she’s speaking to us.
”
”
James Franco (Directing Herbert White)
“
I can't talk about it, at least not right now."
"Sounds kind of paranoid," I said.
"This coming from the girl who attacked me with a freeze ray gun?
”
”
Karen Akins (Loop (Loop #1))
“
There's a very mean girl down the hall who's trying to get me fired. I'm no good with confrontation, so whenever I say, "Have a wonderful day," to her out loud, I'm really saying, "Be nice to me or I will stab you in the face with a fork," in my head. I wish her a wonderful day at least once an hour. She's starting to get paranoid and jumpy about it, but there's really nothing she can do, because she can't complain about me wishing her a wonderful day without sounding totally insane. This is why you should never mess with nonconfrontational people. Because they're too unstable to second-guess. And because they're totally the kind of people who could suddenly snap, and stab you in the face with a fork.
”
”
Jenny Lawson
“
The Decision
...I wiped my hands on my pinafore
now sullied and stained
not crisp or pressed
as it had been before...
”
”
Muse (Enigmatic Evolution)
“
A month ago I was a semi average teenager with a paranoid mom and a whole highway to call home. Yeah, I hated it, hated the running and the motels and the always being alone, but I had Mom. I had a reasonably clear view of myself and the person I was. Then I became a girl with powers beyond my control, a past I wish I never learned about and a future I wasn’t sure I was ready for.
”
”
Airicka Phoenix (Touching Fire (Touch, #2))
“
All the girls stared at me with hatred in their eyes. It was a big drama that had to be acted out. But deep down, nobody really cared. The other girls didn't care about Jennifer. Jennifer didn't care about me. I didn't care about anything.
Everyone was so full of crap.
”
”
Blake Nelson (Paranoid Park)
“
She sank with an enormous sigh that carried all rigidity like a mythical fluid from her, down next to him; so weak she couldn't help him undress her; it took him 20 minutes, rolling, arranging her this way and that, as if she thought, he were some scaled-up, short-haired, poker-faced little girl with a Barbie doll. She may have fallen asleep once or twice. She awoke at last to find herself getting laid; she'd come in on a sexual crescendo in progress, like a cut to a scene where the camera's already moving. Outside a fugue of guitars had begun, and she counted each electronic voice as it came in, till she reached six or so and recalled only three of the Paranoids played guitars; so others must be plugging in.
”
”
Thomas Pynchon (The Crying of Lot 49)
“
Mr. Smith is one of the most wanted (not to mention paranoid) ex-spies in the world, and every summer he goes to the CIA’s official plastic surgeon and gets a whole new face,
”
”
Ally Carter (Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (Gallagher Girls, #2))
“
They weren’t going anywhere. They were her girls, and she had been being too much of a paranoid weirdo to realize it.
”
”
Avery Flynn (Awk-Weird (Ice Knights, #2))
“
It was not as if he did not know what living in Lagos could do to a woman married to a young and wealthy man, how easy it was to slip into paranoid about 'Lagos girls,' those sophisticated monsters of glamour who swallowed husbands whole, slithering them down their throats.
”
”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Americanah)
“
But men like this one, men who will run you off the road because they have cast you in their paranoid fantasies, are far more common. And the tyranny of their appetites is so woven through every woman’s world that imagining life without it is the same as imagining life without ground underfoot.
”
”
Christopher Rice (Bone Music (Burning Girl, #1))
“
LEVELS OF EMOTIONAL FUNCTIONING IN BORDERLINE PERSONALITY 1. Depressed, bored, and lonely 2. Angry, controlling, paranoid, and manipulative behaviors in response to anticipated loss of attachment 3. Nihilistic dissociation and raging fights, often fueled by the disinhibiting effects of alcohol or substance abuse —JOHN GUNDERSON, Borderline Personality Disorder: A Clinical Guide
”
”
Merri Lisa Johnson (Girl in Need of a Tourniquet: Memoir of a Borderline Personality)
“
It is necessary to make this point in answer to the `iatrogenic' theory that the unveiling of repressed memories in MPD sufferers, paranoids and schizophrenics can be created in analysis; a fabrication of the doctor—patient relationship. According to Dr Ross, this theory, a sort of psychiatric ping-pong 'has never been stated in print in a complete and clearly argued way'.
My case endorses Dr Ross's assertions. My memories were coming back to me in fragments and flashbacks long before I began therapy. Indications of that abuse, ritual or otherwise, can be found in my medical records and in notebooks and poems dating back before Adele Armstrong and Jo Lewin entered my life.
There have been a number of cases in recent years where the police have charged groups of people with subjecting children to so-called satanic or ritual abuse in paedophile rings. Few cases result in a conviction. But that is not proof that the abuse didn't take place, and the police must have been very certain of the evidence to have brought the cases to court in the first place. The abuse happens. I know it happens. Girls in psychiatric units don't always talk to the shrinks, but they need to talk and they talk to each other.
As a child I had been taken to see Dr Bradshaw on countless occasions; it was in his surgery that Billy had first discovered Lego. As I was growing up, I also saw Dr Robinson, the marathon runner. Now that I was living back at home, he was again my GP. When Mother bravely told him I was undergoing treatment for MPD/DID as a result of childhood sexual abuse, he buried his head in hands and wept.
(Alice refers to her constant infections as a child, which were never recognised as caused by sexual abuse)
”
”
Alice Jamieson (Today I'm Alice: Nine Personalities, One Tortured Mind)
“
Or are they? Maybe her eyes aren’t wide because of innocence. Maybe it’s fear. He has a split instant of seeing Prospero through the gaze of Miranda—a petrified Miranda who’s suddenly realized that her adored father is a full-blown maniac, and paranoid into the bargain. He thinks she’s asleep when he’s talking out loud to someone who isn’t there, but she’s heard him doing it, and it scares her. He says he can command spirits, raise storms, uproot trees, open tombs, and cause the dead to walk, but what’s that in real life? It’s sheer craziness. The poor girl is trapped in the middle of the ocean with a testosterone-sodden thug who wants to rape her and an ancient dad who’s totally off his gourd. No wonder she throws herself into the arms of the first sane-looking youth who bumbles her way. Get me out of here! is what she’s really saying to Ferdinand. Isn’t it?
”
”
Margaret Atwood (Hag-Seed)
“
Lily understood this feeling too; she knew it all too well, it is just one more thing that just keeps things building up and building up, until the end. I never realized at the time how bad the situation would become until I went through it myself. There is no meaning behind it, which is what gets me. Am I the only one or are there more girls in this hellhole like me, which I do not know about, maybe there is? The bullies harass, it is like they smell their victims or maybe they can smell and taste the blood dripping down from the gash, which they have caused from before, and then it is like you are a wounded animal on Serengeti they come in packs.
Until you have nothing- nothing left… they lick up what is left of your body time and time over, afterward you have to get up and go on with the day, knowing that you have a decision to make. What decision would you make? I know what decision I will make! Like most people my age, I do not drink and drug my brain cells away. I am not senseless or slutty, ‘I feel that being romantic is not dead, and it does exist. You just need to be with the right people, which can show you what real expressions of love are!’ So, are you like me by believing that nothing will ever destroy hope or dreams? On the other hand, are you someone like the clan? Are you going to be praised in the eyes of the fire, or the eyes of the clouds? Just like fallen angels, the ones that have fear of not standing up for what is righteous. Why, because it is more fashionable to live a life of turpitude.
If someone has the light of hope, someone is going to want to dampen the affection. Just like me- when you are single for too long people start thinking, that you are either committed to yourself or that you are a little bit crazy or gay etcetera. I know this… I am not crazy or gay or whatever is said; I just have someone that blocks me out constantly while destroying my reputation. Just think about it. All of you have grown up with the roomers, your parents believed those parents, I do not have parents to fight for me, and the rest is history. So, what she and her clan said becomes known, and that is what was implied to my image.
Is it true?
Hell no, start thinking for yourself people. Just because someone says, something about someone else does not mean that it is factual. Oh, I have tried to fix it… However, it is out of my control, little do you all know that the tower is what prevents everything from happening. It is not my choice; she knew that I was going to be the empress; instead, she made me out to be the fool. She knew that I was one of the brightest stars in the land, and she had to bring that to an end, that was the beginning of the end of holding anyone's hands anymore within the land. The friends and romances were in the retrograde I was dubbed unreachable, she made me a forbidden selection.
I had no choice but to become the hermit in the dwelling of lost and lonely dreams. To look on the bright side, all this has made me a stronger, better, more creative productive person. You cannot stop me now; I will forever shine, and guide others so that they can shine as well. Remember you are the ones listening to slandering voices. My question is why do you listen? Get to know me, and then make your judgments. Yes, it is hard for me to even get things going because the eyes are always watching, and no I am not being paranoid this is part of my true reality. Sure, the opportunity might come knocking down my door, but can you trust them, is it a setup?
”
”
Marcel Ray Duriez (Nevaeh The Lusting Sapphire Blue Eyes)
“
And that’s another reason I detest Mogshack, by the way. I never knew him to try and wean a patient away from dependence on guns. Yet he has two, three thousand a year of the population of New York State through his hands. By this time, if he’d done his job properly, he’d have created a glut of second-hand weaponry and cooled the temperature in this city past the flashpoint.”
“Two or three thousand out of how many many million?” Flamen snapped.
“Out of how many who are unstable enough to lose their marbles and start shooting at random into the street?” Conroy countered. “You don’t start riots, I don’t start riots, the politically educated leaders of the X Patriots don’t start riots. Paranoids start riots and other people are tipped over the edge by contagious hysteria. Your typical insurrectionary sniper isn’t a revolutionary or a fanatic—he’s someone who’s so devoid of empathy he can treat the human beings below his window as moving targets conveniently offered for his skill. And by clever exploitation of the public’s insecurity the Gottschalks have managed to put over a gang of lies equating gunmanship with masculine potency, which do even more damage than Mogshack’s pernicious dogmas. Damn it, man: anyone who can treat another human being as an object for target practice is stuck even further back in the infantile stage than somebody who’s frightened to move on from the masturbation phase and go to bed with a girl! Do you own a gun?
”
”
John Brunner (The Jagged Orbit)
“
Gone is the naïve little girl I met when she was fourteen. Or the one who left me for dead and ran. Or the one I found hiding in small town near the Canadian border. She is a monster of my own making. Beautiful. Graceful. Unassuming. All of which only serves to make her dangerous. She is magnificent. And despite the fact that she’s admitted she was planning to kill me and might still decide to later, I don’t feel the need to be paranoid. My interests are her interests. And she’ll eliminate anything that gets in the way of those interests. Even if it’s me. She is the means of my downfall. A means I unwittingly created. I would gladly go down at her hands. If and until that happens, I’ll give her the world. And if she asks—hell, even if she doesn’t—I’ll burn it to the ground in her name.
”
”
Michaela Jackson (Vice (The Vengeance #3))
“
The end of the world is a fairly comforting concept, because—in theory—we wouldn’t have to survive it. Maybe what’s been fucking us up, more than anything, hasn’t been finding a way to cope with the world ending but finding a way to cope with the fact that it didn’t. An ending is easy. This terminal waking up, morning after morning, isn’t easy. Repairing and rebuilding isn’t easy either. I think that’s why I’ve been so angry, so desperate to believe Adam’s paranoid theory about purgatory, why I wanted to believe that the girl in the water tank had died for a more important reason than men’s continued violence. Instead of a conclusion, we’ve been offered nothing but more life. I don’t know how to come to terms with that.
”
”
Hanna Jameson (The Last)
“
Don't touch me; don't you dare touch me!" "Okay, sorry." Carly pulled back. Alice leaned in. "You did that on purpose!" Alice's nickname should be changed to 'The Paranoid School Drama Queen'.
”
”
Glynnis Rogero (MIDDLE SCHOOL: YOUNGTIMER: ADVENTURES IN TIME SERIES - BOOK 1 (Middle School Books Girls, Middle Grade Books Girls, Adventure Books Girls, Time Travel Books, Friendship Books, Fun Books, Funny Books)
“
All righty then. Alice is now, officially, 'The Bullying Crazy Paranoid School Drama Queen'. "Okay, Alice, I'll stay away from Michael, I promise. But I don't think you should even be worried about other girls. I'm sure Michael only has eyes for you. After all, you're so beautiful and… uh… uh… tall." Carly smiled.
”
”
Glynnis Rogero (MIDDLE SCHOOL: YOUNGTIMER: ADVENTURES IN TIME SERIES - BOOK 1 (Middle School Books Girls, Middle Grade Books Girls, Adventure Books Girls, Time Travel Books, Friendship Books, Fun Books, Funny Books)
“
Piers Morgan
Piers Morgan is a British journalist best known for his editorial work for the Daily Mirror from 1995 through 2004. He is also a successful author and television personality whose recent credits include a recurring role as a judge on NBC’s America’s Got Talent. A controversial member of the tabloid press during Diana’s lifetime, Piers Morgan established a uniquely close relationship with the Princess during the 1990s.
I mentioned I’d been in contact with her mother.
“Oh crikey, that sounds dangerous!”
“She’s a feisty woman, isn’t she?”
William giggled. “Granny’s great fun after a few gin and tonics.”
“Sh, William,” Diana said, giggling too. “My mother’s been a tremendous source of support to me. She never talks publicly; she’s just there for me.”
“And what about William’s other granny?”
“I have enormous respect for the Queen; she has been so supportive, you know. People don’t see that side of her, but I do all the time. She’s an amazing person.”
“Has she been good over the divorce?”
“Yes, very. I just want it over now so I can get on with my life. I’m worried about the attacks I will get afterward.”
“What attacks?”
“I just worry that people will try and knock me down once I am out on my own.”
This seemed unduly paranoid. People adored her.
I asked William how he was enjoying Eton.
“Oh, it’s great, thanks.”
“Do you think the press bother you much?”
“Not the British press, actually. Though the European media can be quite annoying. They sit on the riverbank watching me rowing with their cameras, waiting for me to fall in! There are photographers everywhere if I go out. Normally loads of Japanese tourists taking pictures. All saying “Where’s Prince William?’ when I’m standing right next to them.”
“How are the other boys with you?”
“Very nice. Though a boy was expelled this week for taking ecstasy and snuff. Drugs are everywhere, and I think they’re stupid. I never get tempted.”
“Does matron take any?” laughed Diana.
“No, Mummy, it gives her hallucinations.”
“What, like imagining you’re going to be king?” I said.
They both giggled again.
“Is it true you’ve got Pamela Anderson posters on your bedroom wall?”
“No! And not Cindy Crawford, either. They did both come to tea at the palace, though, and were very nice.”
William had been photographed the previous week at a party at the Hammersmith Palais, where he was mobbed by young girls.
I asked him if he’d had fun. “Everyone in the press said I was snogging these girls, but I wasn’t,” he insisted.
Diana laughed. “One said you stuck your tongue down her throat, William. Did you?”
“No, I did not. Stop it, Mummy, please. It’s embarrassing.”
He’d gone puce. It was a very funny exchange, with a flushed William finally insisting: “I won’t go to any more public parties; it was crazy. People wouldn’t leave me alone.”
Diana laughed again. “All the girls love a nice prince.”
I turned to more serious matters.
“Do you think Charles will become king one day?”
“I think he thinks he will,” replied Diana, “but I think he would be happier living in Tuscany or Provence, to be honest.”
“And how are you these days--someone told me you’ve stopped seeing therapists?”
“I have, yes. I stopped when I realized they needed more therapy than I did. I feel stronger now, but I am under so much pressure all the time. People don’t know what it’s like to be in the public eye, they really don’t.
”
”
Larry King (The People's Princess: Cherished Memories of Diana, Princess of Wales, From Those Who Knew Her Best)
“
Take nothing for granted. Once you’ve seen a miracle, you fear the miracle. Beware of the opponent who is giving herself a chance to be lucky. Stay paranoid. Finish your job. Relax when the game is over and not a second before.
”
”
Dan Blank (Everything Your Coach Never Told You Because You're a Girl: (and other truths about winning!))
“
When it comes to generating writing material, teenagers are gold. Their world is a narcissistic, anarchic, paranoid hell of anxieties and stresses about how they look; how popular they are or aren’t; and how fast or slowly, big or small their private parts are growing. As an observer, it’s fantastic. Hilarious, at times. Poignant and heartbreaking. It is all the stuff of great human drama because, before your eyes, you get to witness character transformation. Boy grows into man. Girl grows into woman. Writers strain to make this shit up.
But – and here’s the catch – we dare not discuss any of this if we want our kids to trust us or ever talk to us again. And that’s because, lifts and pocket money aside, teenagers crave privacy – the need for which hatches both swiftly and silently while we’re sorting out the laundry. It’s as if they suddenly wake up one day creeped out by the thought of all those years we wiped their butts and helped them put on their undies and they go into lock- down. They smoke us out, put up walls, close their doors, shut down their stories, and waft, earphoned, through our homes in a shroud of hormones and appetite. Their lives – in which, until recently, we participated with Too Much Information and gross oversharing – suddenly become ‘none of our business.
”
”
JOANNE FEDLER
“
impress the super-girl in his class. Stop being so paranoid. He
”
”
W.J. May (The Chronicles of Kerrigan: Box Set Books 1-6)
“
I panic and get paranoid and sound grumpier and more intense than I am actually feeling. I may sound like I am yelling when in fact I am having an attack of fear and am scared, like I am lashing out. I can never be sure of others' motivations because so many people mask their uneasiness under a facade of niceness or they lie to make you feel better, and that makes me panic even more.
”
”
Karen McKibbin (Life on the Autism Spectrum - A Guide for Girls and Women)
“
She behaves like daddy’s twelve-year-old little girl when he’s around. So he thinks the problem is with me. That I see the worst in her. He actually thinks I might be paranoid like my mother.
”
”
Nicola Sanders (Don't Let Her Stay)
“
The town is attracting a whole load of yobs who just want to roam around picking fights and getting into trouble. I’m not surprised Russell’s dad was really worried about him being out late.’ ‘Russell can look after himself, Dad. He’s not some sad little wimp.’ ‘He could be Mr Muscles Macho Man. It wouldn’t make any difference if a whole gang started in on him.’ ‘You’re getting totally paranoid, Dad.’ ‘Maybe. I don’t know. But how about if you and Russell met up after school and then he went back home around nine?’ ‘Dad! We’re not Eggs’s age!’ ‘I know, I know – but you’re as precious to me as Eggs and I don’t need another night like Thursday. Look, you’re still supposed to be in the doghouse for that. I’ll let you see Russell, but I’m going to stick to this nine o’clock curfew for the time being. I think that’s more than fair.’ ‘I don’t!’ ‘Well it gets dark by nine – so you couldn’t do any sketching then, could you?’ says Dad, smiling. I smile back weakly. I don’t know who’s bluffing who. But at least I can see Russell – even if it’s only in daylight! I go up to my bedroom and read his letter again. Several times more. Then I go downstairs and ring Nadine and tell her that it’s all OK and that Russell walked round and round the town looking for me, practically knocking at every house door. Nadine isn’t quite as impressed as I’d hoped. She’s got her Claudie album playing full blast (her family are obviously out) and she’s singing along instead of concentrating fully. I need to ask her something. ‘Nadine, do you really think Russell looks seriously shifty?’ Nadine herself sounds as if she’s doing some serious shifting the other end of the phone. ‘No, no, Ellie, not at all. I was just, you know, saying stuff to comfort you. I don’t think his eyes are too close together either. I think it was just his intense expression when he was sketching you.
”
”
Jacqueline Wilson (Girls Out Late)
“
Oh my god, you are being so paranoid right now. So what if Danny finds out I snooped around in his uncle’s computer? What’s the big deal? I mean, I know the guy’s dead, but let’s face it, he was shady as hell.
”
”
Jesse Q. Sutanto (The New Girl)
“
I wanted to think I was a big girl, but when I kept glancing up at the ceiling even though it was only about six o’clock, I wanted to cry.
I hated being paranoid. Scared. But no matter how much I told myself that a bat was just a sweet little sky puppy…
I wasn’t buying it. And it wasn’t like I had anywhere else to go to get out of there. I hadn’t made enough friends yet.
”
”
Mariana Zapata (All Rhodes Lead Here)
“
I had zero money for a new athletic wardrobe, so I settled for old yoga shorts and a t-shirt. I’d tried a tank top since it was seventy-five million degrees already. But I was paranoid about the roll around my middle. I wasn’t about to stroll onto my old turf with a visible belly roll. I’d given Culpepper enough to talk about over the years
”
”
Lucy Score (Rock Bottom Girl)
“
Handle it how?” asked a third mother. “Amazon Prime?” “We’ll handle it,” repeated Terry. “There are tarps in the toolshed. We’ll be fine.” JEN, IMPRESSED BY Terry’s masterful attitude, consented to hook up with him in the greenhouse that evening (we’d piled a nest of blankets in a corner). Jen was strong but had notoriously low standards, make-out-wise. Not to be outdone, the other two girls and I agreed to play Spin the Bottle with David and Low. Extreme version, oral potentially included. Juicy was fourteen, too immature for us and too much of a slob, and Rafe wasn’t bi. Shame, said Sukey. Rafe is hella good-looking. Then Dee said she wouldn’t play, so it was down to Sukey and me. Dee was afraid of Spin the Bottle, due to being—Sukey alleged—a quiet little mouse and most likely even a mouth virgin. Timid and shy, Dee was also passive-aggressive, neurotic, a germaphobe, and borderline paranoid. According to Sukey. “Suck it up, mousy,” said Sukey. “It’s a teachable moment.” “Why teachable?” asked Dee. Because, said Sukey, she, yours truly, was a master of the one-minute handjob. Dee could pick up some tips. The guys sat straighter when Sukey said that. Their interest became focused and laser-like. But Dee said no, she wasn’t that type. Plus, after this she needed a shower. Val also declined to participate. She left to go climbing in the dark. This was while the parents were playing Texas Hold ’Em and squabbling over alleged card counting—someone’s father had been kicked out of a casino in Las Vegas. The younger kids were fast asleep.
”
”
Lydia Millet (A Children's Bible)
“
He drove on, head-banging to the backbeat of Ozzy Osborne’s Paranoid. On a steep hill, he downshifted and said, Mary, do you believe you live by what you earn? I said sure, stunned less by the question than by the breath he’d exhaled—real snake-shit breath. He shouted, Some live by what their own hands take. Others feed like buzzards on the carcass’s leftovers. That’s right, I said, wondering what he was getting at. Maybe he wanted me to sell Tupperware or cosmetics door-to-door. Some of the want ads I’d answered offered that. He said, Samson after his haircut could not break his chains, and the stones of the temple rained down. I nodded at the King James Bible cadence he’d slid into, his accent no longer evoking Grandpappy on the porch with a slab of pie, but a preacher whose fire and brimstone maybe came from a guilty conscience about underage choristers. I tried to adopt the big-eyed face of a church girl with a well-armed brother. A crumb of fear. He drew a snuff can out from under his seat and tucked a pinch in his jaw, saying around it, You dip? No, sir, I said.
”
”
Mary Karr (Lit)
“
I have to unblock myself from this bathroom before someone thinks I’m ending it. I spend thirty minutes in the bathroom, first washing my face and then reapplying makeup, even though my hands are unsteady, and my face keeps doubling up in the mirror, with my eye movements. I know at some point. My head is still fuzzy and pounding with every move or eyelid blink I make. I was trying so hard to not think yet this popped into my mind. ‘If you don't have trust, you don't have anything. And if you don’t trust them you lose them to someone that well.’
Jenny sees me down the hall and runs to my side… Saying- ‘Come on back. You're- such a baby, we didn’t mean anything by it.’
Jenny is such a bull-crapper and Maddie drunker and then me and with her. Liv is like a little girl on Ritalin when she has a sip too many and I’m antisocial and paranoid, and someone cracks a window to let out the smoke and sex stink yet know does. They're like are you nuts, it's freezing out… that was the look on their cold-hearted faces, everyone in the room is like icebergs to me, and I felt like the Titanic was about to sneak, no mercy, no compassion. I was a- nobody among everybody.
”
”
Marcel Ray Duriez (Young Taboo (Nevaeh))
“
We spend so much time, she thinks, teaching girls how not to get raped, and then we attack them for it. If you drink, it’s your fault, but if you don’t drink, you’re a killjoy. If you show too much of your body, you’re asking for it, but if you cover up, you’re a prude, and you’re asking for it. You’re too loud; you’re not loud enough. You’re too paranoid; you’re not paranoid enough. It’s your fault. It’s your fault. It’s your fault. It’s impossible not to internalize that to some degree or another.
”
”
Dot Hutchison (Deadly Waters (Rebecca Sorley, #1))
“
Tarvek rolled his eyes. “Great. All we have to do is figure out where an evil, paranoid genius would put the access to a secret room that protects his family’s greatest secrets.” “True. Let’s try to think like a diabolical, amoral megalomaniac.” Agatha thought for a second, then turned to Tarvek and smiled at him engagingly. “Where would you put it?” Caught in the light of her smile, Tarvek grinned back and tapped an unassuming book. “Oh, I’d put it right here!” Instantly a section of the bookshelf swung aside on smooth pivots. “I knew it!” She patted him on the cheek. “Thank you, Tarvek.” Realization of the implications of this played across Tarvek’s face and he glared at Agatha. “Now just a minute . . .
”
”
Phil Foglio (Agatha H. and the Siege of Mechanicsburg (Girl Genius #4))