Chris Kraus, I Love Dick

"[Being rejected] hurt, 'cause what turned me on in sex was believing that they knew me, that I'd found somebody to understand."

"S: But Chris, I think his embarrassment isn't in relation to you or me but to himself. What can he do?C: I hate being thrown into such a physical state. S: Isn't that experiencing life to the hilt?C: No, it's just a dumb infatuation. I'm so ashamed. S: But even if his silence hurts you, isn't that what attracted you to him? The fact that he was inaccessible. So, I think there is a contradiction there, at least nothing to feel ashamed of -."

"No woman is an island-ess. We fall in love in hope of anchoring ourselves to someone else, to keep from falling."

"Your cowboy persona meshed so well with the dreams Chris has of the torn and silent men she's been rejected by. The fact that you don't return messages turns your answerphone into a blank screen onto which we can project our fantasies."

"...to understand infatuation, how the loved person can become a holding pattern for all the tattered ends of memory, experience and thought you've ever had."

"Why is female vulnerability still only acceptable when it's neuroticised and personal; when it feeds back on itself? Why do people still not get it when we handle vulnerability like philosophy, at some remove?"