The Project Quotes

“Now, it felt like every day a new oozing pustule of emotion came glopping out. One day it was a goopy mass of abandonment issues. Then there was the gelatinous muck of hyper-independence weighing down her proverbial galoshes. The steaming, writhing mass that was her identity crisis was particularly pungent some days. It had come to her attention the hard way that for years her coping mechanism had been to numb herself; turn her emotions off completely. Any that snuck through were instantly squashed under humor, deflection, or anger. A perfect plan, until that damn straw had hit the camel's stupid back.”
― Andrea Schwagerl, The Project

“She had one more fight left in her - just one more. As many times as it took, she had one more.”
― Andrea Schwagerl, The Project

“The mere thought of losing her had been a drawn-out torture, she could see that on their faces, and she could only imagine what it would have done to them if she hadn't kept fighting - then or now. She was so glad she had, and so guilty that she almost hadn't.”
― Andrea Schwagerl, The Project

“Surviving sounded so overwhelming. That she could have crawled through the bowels of hell and come out the other side only for a whole new ordeal to only be beginning - it was all too much. It was too heavy, and she feared she couldn't carry any of it anymore. She was so exhausted in ways no amount of sleep could ever fix.”
― Andrea Schwagerl, The Project

“This time she didn't fight it; she let herself fall. She could now. She had help. She wasn't alone.”
― Andrea Schwagerl, The Project

“The problem was this wasn't the wilderness. She hadn't taken a wrong turn and lost the trail or been caught in an unexpected thunderstorm. She was being held; caged. Nature was indifferent. It was going to act how it was going to act, and she could adapt and adjust to work with it. Nature wouldn't change tactics to match hers or purposefully try to stop her. Nature wasn't trying to kill her. This was different. She didn't have obstacles; she had an enemy. She was at yet another disadvantage: nature she understood; she could read it, to a certain extent predict it. This? Him? Different.
There were a lot of ways this was very different than anything she had ever trained for. But, as she lay on that grungy mattress with her eyes closed waiting for the spinning to stop, she realized there was one crucial similarity: the goal - survive.”
― Andrea Schwagerl, The Project