My natural inclination is to think in scenes. So that's how I write, and the issue for me is usually: what to compress for speed. — Leigh Newman Copy Share Image
I would hit a scene about my mother screaming at me during her breakdown, drunk or using pills, and she'd turn into a monster. Which she wasn't. She was a human: somebody who loved me and somebody with a problem. — Leigh Newman Copy Share Image
Resisting and avoiding pain sucks energy-and time. The more you let yourself feel those minute-and-a-half hells, the quicker you'll start feeling those minute-and-a-half happinesses. — Leigh Newman Copy Share Image
“Pain only seems scary while you're waiting for it to happen. After it does, it's just hurt and recovery.” — Leigh Newman Copy Share Image
I turned what was a wonderful case of self-reliance into a case of self-exile. Which is not uncommon, I think, in people who grow… — Leigh Newman Copy Share Image
I wasn't in a position that some other memoirists are, dealing with families who fed them meth, or kidnapped them, or did something that… — Leigh Newman Copy Share Image
It feels like people talk a lot, in their relationships and in therapy. But my family wasn't like that. My dad wasn't and I… — Leigh Newman Copy Share Image
The minute I landed back in Alaska, it was back to hip boots and fish guts. This cultural flipping wasn't easy - especially on… — Leigh Newman Copy Share Image
Often, I think that my brothers were the reason I didn't do something really stupid in my teenage years; I didn't want to disappoint… — Leigh Newman Copy Share Image
My natural inclination is to think in scenes. So that's how I write, and the issue for me is usually: what to compress for… — Leigh Newman Copy Share Image
The tough thing is how to cultivate a life where the paramecium of happiness gets a lot of chances to get out and swim… — Leigh Newman Copy Share Image
There's a kind of intimacy that happens between a mother and an only child. Which only gets more intimate when it's between a mother… — Leigh Newman Copy Share Image
My dad felt pretty strongly that I know about the basic workings of a plane and so he taught me how to read and… — Leigh Newman Copy Share Image
Penning an advice column for the literary website The Rumpus, [Strayed] worked anonymously, using the pen name Sugar, replying to letters from readings suffering… — Leigh Newman Copy Share Image
![“Penning an advice column for the literary website The Rumpus, [Strayed] worked anonymously, using the pen name Sugar, replying to letters from readings suffering everything from loveless marriages to abusive, drug-addicted brothers to disfiguring illnesses. The result: intimate, in-depth essays…” quote by Leigh Newman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/e91/leigh-newman-15257_abusive_penning-an-advice-column-for-the-literar_645510.jpg)