The Woman in the Window

by A.J. Finn

Watching is like nature photography: You don’t interfere with the wildlife.

Cotard delusion, a psychological phenomenon whereby the individual believes that he is dead. A rare disorder,

Those unfamiliar with therapy often assume that the therapist is by default soft-spoken and solicitous; you smear yourself along his sofa like butter on toast, and you melt. It ain’t necessarily so, as the song goes. Exhibit A: Dr. Julian Fielding.

Dr. Brulov in Spellbound: “My dear girl, you cannot keep bumping your head against reality and saying it is not there.”

“I miss your shoes. I miss you asking me for coffee in the morning. I miss that time you wore my mascara and everybody noticed. I miss that time you actually asked me to sew something. I miss how polite you are to waiters.” In my bed now, our bed. “I miss your eggs.” Scrambled, even when sunny-side up. “I miss your bedtime stories.”

Shaw also said, alcohol is the anesthesia by which we endure the operation of life.

the midday sun floats in an aching-blue sky—a sky “not to warm the flesh, but solely to please the eye.” Nabokov,