“When my first book came out, it was very disorienting. My health went south. I didn't know how to relate to people. I thought, "Now I have this way to be in the world that's going to be wonderful. It'll be like driving a great car, really streamlined." But it actually was difficult because, if you have a public persona, something you don't fully have control over, it's more like being in a car with controls you don't really understand.”
![“...loading your brain with subliminal messages… How loathsome to turn a sadistic murder into entertainment [in the newspaper] -- and yet how hard not to read about it. What dark comedy to realize that you are scanning for descriptions of torture as you disapprove. Which of course only makes it…” quote by Mary Gaitskill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/1b9/mary-gaitskill-7551_dark-comedy_loading-your-brain-with-subliminal-messa_204085.jpg)
![“The place Joanne is building inside [herself] has rooms for all of this. Not just rooms. Beautiful ones. For Karl and Jerry and Karen and Nate in his cowboy hat and the hot-tub guy and movie directors and old-lady healers and people trying to love their asses and people who think they're stupid…” quote by Mary Gaitskill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/117/mary-gaitskill-7551_cowboy-hat_the-place-joanne-is-building-inside-hers_231488.jpg)
