The idea that a story has to be 'exceptional' in order to be worth telling is curious to me. What if we looked at every single person's story as a site of possibly infinite meaning? What if we came to… — Leslie Jamison Copy Share Image
When people ask what kind of nonfiction I write, I say 'all kinds,' but really I mean I don’t write any kind at all:… — Leslie Jamison Copy Share
It's one of the most liberating things I experience in writing - letting yourself get rid of a gesture or character or plot point… — Leslie Jamison Copy Share
The pain is what you make of it. You have to find something in it that yields. I understood my guiding imperative as: keep… — Leslie Jamison Copy Share
I needed people to deliver my feelings back to me in a form that was legible. Which is a superlative kind of empathy to… — Leslie Jamison Copy Share
In my own life as a reader I experience real moments of alienation when a writer feels too perfect, or like even the flaws… — Leslie Jamison Copy Share
I'm happy not knowing. Most of the time (except when I'm a neurotic mess about uncertainty) I feel glad that the horizon is a… — Leslie Jamison Copy Share
I do like arranging things. I like order. I basically like all these things that are the opposite of what people associate with the… — Leslie Jamison Copy Share
I used to believe that hurting would make you more alive to the hurting of others. I used to believe in feeling bad because… — Leslie Jamison Copy Share
“I obsessed, and told myself this obsession was empathy. But it wasn't, quite. It was more like inpathy. I wasn't expatriating myself into another… — Leslie Jamison Copy Share
Post-wounded women know that postures of pain play into limited and outmoded conceptions of womanhood. Their hurt has a new native language spoken in… — Leslie Jamison Copy Share
12-step recovery is very focused on abstinence, and that's bled into the broader understanding of treatment. It would be most useful to have multiple… — Leslie Jamison Copy Share
We don't want to be wounds ("No, you're the wound!") but we should be allowed to have them, to speak about having them, to… — Leslie Jamison Copy Share
“Empathy isn't just listening, it's asking the questions whose answers need to be listened to.” — Leslie Jamison Copy Share
