I walk into a health club locker room and feel an immediate impulse toward scrutiny, the kneejerk measuring of self against other: ‘That one has great thighs, this one’s gained weight, who’s thin, who’s fat, how do I compare?’ Caroline Knapp Read Quote
On the broad spectrum of solitude, I lean toward the extreme end: I work alone, as well as live alone, so I can pass an entire day without uttering so much as a hello to another human being. Sometimes a day’s conversation consists of only five words, uttered at the local Starbucks: ‘Large coffee with milk, please.’ Caroline Knapp Read Quote
I’m 38 and I’m single, and I’m having my most intense and gratifying relationship with a dog. But we all learn about love in different ways, and this way happens to be mine. Caroline Knapp Read Quote
Before you open the lunch menu or order that cheeseburger or consider eating the cake with the frosting intact, haul out the psychic calculator and start tinkering with the budget. Caroline Knapp Read Quote
Desires collide; the wish to eat bumping up against the wish to be thin, the desire to indulge conflicting with the injunction to restrain. Small wonder food makes a woman nervous. Caroline Knapp Read Quote
Who has the best features? This was a little game, conducted several times and always with the same results, in seventh grade, the time when so many of life’s little horrors begin. Caroline Knapp Read Quote
Surely, it’s one of terrorism’s intended effects, to literally stun our morale, to blow up strength and will along with buildings, and the reaction is hard to counter. Caroline Knapp Read Quote
Happy and alone, you say? Reclusive and merry? How oxymoronic! Pas possible! Alas, the concept is lost on so many. Caroline Knapp Read Quote
Why do I find the fantasy – husband, family, kids – exhausting instead of alluring? Is there something wrong with me? Do I have a life? Caroline Knapp Read Quote
Census figures be damned: If you choose to be alone, you’re destined to spend a certain amount of time wondering why. Caroline Knapp Read Quote
