Defense mechanism Quote by Koren Zailckas

My short stature may have something to do with my tendency to shout when enraged. How else is anyone going to hear me way…

— Koren Zailckas

I grew up in a family that despised displays of strong emotion, rage in particular. We stewed. We sulked. When arguments did occur, they…

— Koren Zailckas

I think when you're 14 years old, I think you're sort of looking for markers that prove you're an adult and you're independent of…

— Koren Zailckas

What makes a narcissistic mother so scary? Her absolute power and controlling influence. A narcissistic mother is your only 'friend,' at least until you're…

— Koren Zailckas

For the first month of school, writing is its own upper. Pounding on my computer keys feels like playing the piano, like arranging words…

— Koren Zailckas

Having a child doesn't make a woman a mother any more than owning a paintbrush makes her Frida Kahlo.

— Koren Zailckas

I'm sick of the ignorance that lack of funding has generated, of the fathers who apporach me at dinner parties with their four-year-old girls…

— Koren Zailckas

If mothers are our first teachers, then having a narcissistic one teaches us that human closeness is terrifying, and the world is a heartless,…

— Koren Zailckas

I don't know where the idea originated that memoir writing is cathartic. For me, it's always felt like playing my own neurosurgeon, sans anesthesia.…

— Koren Zailckas

Since I've quit drinking, I'm not sure I've found the good life, but I've certainly uncovered a better one.

— Koren Zailckas

Like most women, I remember my first drink in tender minutiae.

— Koren Zailckas

“One night, Tess finds me sobbing during the health segment of the evening news. Scientists have discovered scarred cells from cardiac arrest fall away…

— Koren Zailckas