“Some in the outside world might call our traumas trivial. Were you gang-raped? Sold into slavery? Imprisoned in a concentration camp? Did you accidentally tweet a naked picture of yourself to twenty million strangers? No? Then stop whining! They would… — Anneli Rufus Copy Share Image
“Because loners are born everywhere, we end up living everywhere. We do not, have not, tended to single ourselves out as special, elite, requiring rarefied environments. Too often we have done the opposite; lived where we lived because our jobs were there, or families, or because we'd heard the schools were good there, or that we would love a place… — Anneli Rufus Copy Share
And as experienced as I am, it still summons an act of bravery from me, and I like that. I like the idea of… — Anneli Rufus Copy Share Image
Loners live among the mob, so the mob mistakes us for its own, presuming and assuming. When the mob gets too close, the truth… — Anneli Rufus Copy Share Image
“Just as soon as children develop awareness, it is essential to demonstrate to them by word and deed that they must submit,” advised Swiss philosopher Johann Georg Sulzer in his 1748 Essay on the Education and Instruction of Children, a text not atypical of its type and time. “It is impossible to reason with young children,” Sulzer asserted. “Thus, willfulness… — Anneli Rufus Copy Share
The loner who looks fabulous is one of the most vulnerable loners of all. — Anneli Rufus Copy Share Image
“We believe that whatever feels at first like joy is not. Or is, but will not last. Or should not last. We feel so sure of this that we will undermine our own inklings of joy, blunting the pain we think awaits. This way we beat pain to the punch. We will not simply sit/stand/lie like suckers when the practical… — Anneli Rufus Copy Share
Writing is done alone. People do not talk about the things they do alone. — Anneli Rufus Copy Share Image
“To this day, I have a very unhealthy relationship with food. I have an eating disorder; not in that I am anorexic or bulimic—I’m… — Anneli Rufus Copy Share Image
We do not require company. In varying degrees, it bores us, drains us, makes our eyes glaze over. Overcomes us like a steamroller. Of… — Anneli Rufus Copy Share Image
Socializing is as exhausting as giving blood. People assume we loners are misanthropes, just sitting thinking, ‘Oh, people are such a bunch of assholes,’… — Anneli Rufus Copy Share Image
After what others would call a fun day out together, we feel as if we have been at the Red Cross, donating blood. — Anneli Rufus Copy Share Image
