Brandon Stanton's Blog, page 374

The younger one was telling me about her boyfriend, who is...

The younger one was telling me about her boyfriend, who is “good at cleaning up the classroom,” when her older sister leaned in and said: “Tell him that you kissed him.”

"I make freaky, sexual films. I think my parents are worried...

"I make freaky, sexual films.  I think my parents are worried about me."
"What draws you to that subject matter?"
"My childhood was boring as fuck."

"My father had a heart attack when I was fifteen. I found him on...

"My father had a heart attack when I was fifteen. I found him on the floor of his study, lying on his side. I could tell his heart had stopped, because all the blood pooled at the bottom of his body. The inch of his body closest to the floor was dark purple. The rest of body was completely white. He was two different colors. And neither of them were normal."

"I just finished a couple’s therapy session. We’ve...

"I just finished a couple’s therapy session. We’ve had about 15 or 20 sessions so far. It’s helpful. It sort of allows you to work through things at a slow, guided pace, as opposed to dealing with things during the reactive flare ups of everyday life."
"What’s the final goal?"
"I guess to rediscover the deep connection that got lost in the fray over time. Getting back to the fundamentals of a relationship."
"What are the fundamentals?"
"Support. Honesty. Trust."
"And which of those are you having the hardest time getting back to?"
"Trust."
"Why’s that?"
"History."

"I’m sure I’d be less jealous if I was more...

"I’m sure I’d be less jealous if I was more confident."

"What do you feel most guilty about""My father was a barber. He...

"What do you feel most guilty about"
"My father was a barber. He was a really proud man. He cut hair at all the nicest hotels. A couple of times when I was a teenager, just to spite him, I went and got my hair cut at another barber. It was like a thorn in his heart."

"I’m working from 8 AM to 8 AM. But I do get a coffee...

"I’m working from 8 AM to 8 AM. But I do get a coffee break."

"One time my mother saw my brother-in-law hit my sister. She was...

"One time my mother saw my brother-in-law hit my sister. She was seventy years old at the time, but she got up out of her chair, walked across the room, and started beating him with her cane. ‘I was a dark skinned black woman in the 1940’s,’ she said. ‘We didn’t have any of this ‘legal stuff’ to protect us.’"

"Do you remember the happiest moment of your life?""This one...

"Do you remember the happiest moment of your life?"
"This one time I was in Hawaii with my family, and we were walking to the beach, and we came to the top of this giant hill. And I said, ‘I’m going to take it.’ And I put my skateboard down, and started rolling down the hill, and I got going so fast that the board started to shake because the trucks were loose, and toward the bottom of the hill I came to this crack, and the board got caught and I was thrown onto the pavement. I got all bruised and scraped and my mom was screaming because she’s a total freakout."
"That was the happiest moment of your life?"
"Yeah, I was just glad I took the hill."

"We’re a little bit tired. And a little bit hungry."

"We’re a little bit tired. And a little bit hungry."