Bad Behavior (Penguin Modern Classics)

by Mary Gaitskill

‘That’s easy for you to say,’ he said. ‘Things are always less important once you’re assured of having them.’

Maybe the extremities and obviousness of a cartoon girl were all that she could handle in another woman. It was probably for this reason that Leisha chose to be a cartoon girl, she thought sadly.

At times she had thought that this was the only kind of connection you could have with people – intense, inexplicable and ultimately incomplete.

She had thought she was making a penetrating remark that would impress Dara with her perceptiveness; instead she had revealed herself to be a person living in a dreamworld. This was always happening.