Interesting Facts about Space Quotes

“I want to linger here in the in-between, half-made, in some permanent adolescence, forever. I don't ever want to become my full self.”
― Emily Austin, Interesting Facts About Space

“I worry that I am a shell for something bad. That deep down, in the spot where most people keep their souls, I keep a weird little bug. I picture him there, leaning on the apple core of my soul, crunching on what remains of what’s good of me.”
― Emily R. Austin, Interesting Facts about Space

“I hate my voice. I hate the words I choose. I hate my instincts and the way I think. I hate that I am self-absorbed enough to hate myself in detail. I think I am a bad person. I feel self-loathing so deeply I think if I cracked myself open, I would see the physical manifestation of it calcified in my bones like a geode.”
― Emily R. Austin, Interesting Facts about Space

“I have worked on myself since being a kid. I now carry myself, for the most part, like I am socially apt and confident. ... I started mimicking the behavior of confident people when I was a teenager, and I have worn that mask so long now that my face is melding with it. There are parts of me I wish I could train out that I can't. You can train a dog not to bite, sit on the furniture, or piss in the house, but you can't train them to become birds. ... I feel self-loathing so deeply I think if I cracked myself open, I would see the physical manifestation of it calcified in my bones like a geode.”
― Emily R. Austin, Interesting Facts about Space

“It’s actually sort of soothing to think of how massive the universe is, and how I could be snuffed out at any minute. I guess I like tricking my brain into disarming things.”
― Emily R. Austin, Interesting Facts about Space

“There is something soothing about being rejected. It really anchors you in your body. It feels like a bath.”
― Emily Austin, Interesting Facts About Space

“But there are some fears that are rational. It’s reasonable to be afraid of murder, or to feel troubled about existing as a speck on a space rock floating in colossal, silent darkness. Those are rational fears. They’re both fears that can’t really be faced. How am I supposed to cope with fears like that? I thought the only option was to be delusional. I thought everyone coped by imagining reality isn’t what it is—by ignoring the threat of murder, or by forgetting we’re in space—or by doing what I do. By repeatedly exposing yourself until the threats feel familiar, the shock wears off, and you’ve conditioned yourself to find what scares you pacifying.”
― Emily R. Austin, Interesting Facts about Space

“We are going to watch a scary movie. I felt like watching something frightening so I could exert power over it. I want to eat popcorn while I watch it and laugh while it tries to scare me.”
― Emily R. Austin, Interesting Facts about Space

“I wish I could have one nice interaction with everyone and then disappear.”
― Emily R. Austin, Interesting Facts about Space

“Sometimes, when things are broken, I find they fix themselves if you just pretend that they are fine and give them time.”
― Emily R. Austin, Interesting Facts about Space

“She just confidently asked a waitress for something. It takes me 5 minutes or more of mentally reciting what I will say before I even look at a waitress. I once ate an entire rack of ribs when I had ordered a tomato sandwich.”
― Emily R. Austin, Interesting Facts about Space

“I walk into his office, ready to greet George, and scream. George is bald.”
― Emily R. Austin, Interesting Facts about Space

“I struggle to stomach sincerity, or to express any authentic emotion, because everything feels insincere when you suspect that deep down, in the chasm of yourself, the most sentient part of you is a little ill-intentioned monster. I feel like a husk, like I am being gradually taken over, and that all my feelings and thoughts are tampered with. I am nervous when I interact with people like Edna. I don't want to expose her to Plankton. I think there have been times in the past where he took me over completely.”
― Emily R. Austin, Interesting Facts about Space

“I can tell that I wouldn’t be attracted to him, but that is true of every man except for a few very specific celebrities, and some fictional male characters who were written by women.”
― Emily R. Austin, Interesting Facts about Space

“The thing is,” child-me continues, “ghosts aren’t any more scary than people are. Think about it. Ghosts just used to be people. Some people are really scary, like murderers, and bullies.”
― Emily R. Austin, Interesting Facts about Space

“I am thinking about how everyone's behavior is motivated by many secret things. I know there are reasons why people do things that I am not in on. I know I am not the center of the universe. The sun does not revolve around me. There are lots of questions I will never know the answers to. ... Maybe everything I think is wrong.”
― Emily R. Austin, Interesting Facts about Space

“Whenever I see my mom watching her food cook in the oven, I sit next to her and look in. You can't kill yourself in modern ovens. Well, I'm sure you could. You could kill yourself with anything if you tried hard enough. When we sit there, though, I feel like we are moths drawn to the memory of what an oven can do to sad women.”
― Emily R. Austin, Interesting Facts about Space

“Sometimes, when I have a nice interaction with someone, I hope I never see them again. Occasionally, I have a nice chat with a cashier, for example. I leave the store thinking, I hope I never see them again. I avoid their register if I do. Sometimes, when I visit extended family, like my mom's cousins, or a great aunt, I think it's a shame they saw me now at my age. I think it might have been better for them to have last seen me as a kid. I think seeing me now might ruin the memory of when I was little. I often stop texting people I'm seeing after having a nice time with them. I wish I could have one nice interaction with everyone and then disappear.”
― Emily R. Austin, Interesting Facts about Space

“I doubt it's possible to have a baby and not imagine what you want for it. If I were to ever fall pregnant, I would wonder what the sex of the baby is. Celebrations that center expectations around gender depress me, though. I don't think I am what someone would envision if they cut into a cake and saw pink. If I saw photos of my mom, teary-eyed at the thought of me being a girl, I would feel even more guilty for being born the way I am.”
― Emily R. Austin, Interesting Facts about Space

“I hate being startled. I prefer controlled forms of fear. I like my podcasts, horror movies, and ghost stories that I can pause and rewind. I handle fear sort of like a warhorse. I could charge bravely into a planned battle, take in the sights of bombs and corpses, but I would still be spooked by an unanticipated barn rat.”
― Emily R. Austin, Interesting Facts about Space

“When stars fall into black holes, they seem to do it slowly. Because of gravitational time dilation, they look as if they are paused. If a person were to fall into a black hole, they would be spaghettified; however, to anyone watching, they would look as if they didn’t fall.”
― Emily R. Austin, Interesting Facts about Space

“Sometimes, when I have a nice interaction with someone, I hope I never see them again.”
― Emily R. Austin, Interesting Facts about Space

“I will never understand how my dad could stand in the glow of my mom, as if an inch from a star, and be unmoved by her formidable light.”
― Emily R. Austin, Interesting Facts about Space

“I spent a lot of time growing up trying to seem normal. Sometimes I worry I neglected doing the internal work most people do while they’re developing; I was too preoccupied camouflaging. I think I might be stunted because of it. I think I missed a step.”
― Emily R. Austin, Interesting Facts about Space

“do not know why we assume attractive people are less likely to be killers, anyways. In my experience, good-looking people are more likely to be depraved.”
― Emily R. Austin, Interesting Facts about Space

“I do a lot of online dating though, and I rarely even meet in public. That safety protocol is more applicable to straight women. One of the perks of being a lesbian is that it is less critical for me to vet whether my date will kill me.”
― Emily R. Austin, Interesting Facts about Space

“I think that if there were no one else alive I wouldn’t clean my house. I would pile garbage everywhere. I would collect wrappers, acorns, and rocks, and hoard them around me like a dirty little ferret. If I existed alone, I doubt I would wash my hair. I would shave my head. I would perch on a hill of my own trash, naked.”
― Emily R. Austin, Interesting Facts about Space

“I wear the mask of a well mannered distant relative. A young lady who crosses her legs at the ankles and laughs at banal jokes. That is a new character for me however. I have not mastered her yet. I have grasped the characters; enigmatic temporary love interest, reliable employee, my mother's aidful daughter, unobjectionable patron at a store or restaurant. In the past I learned to play shy teenage girl, tidy roommate, and diligent student through some trial and error, but those roles are behind me now, thank god.”
― Emily R. Austin, Interesting Facts about Space

“feel pressure to perform, as if I am an actress wearing the mask of my own face, playing the role of a professional, put-together young lady.”
― Emily R. Austin, Interesting Facts about Space

“He looks at me. "You really think being interested in true crime is like being interested in sports? That's sick."
Vin says, "I've read women are into it because it's like a dress rehearsal. They're more fearful of violent crime than us because they're victims of it more often. They're taught not to walk alone at night or trust strangers. They have a reason to pay attention to those stories."
"Oh wow. I didn't know that," Maveric says.
Vin continues. "I think it also gives people a sense of relief that they aren't the victim."
Maveric looks at me. "Is that why you like it? Because you're happy you're not the victim?"
"Yeah," I say. "But It's also because I'm happy I'm not the perpetrator."
He laughs. He thinks I'm joking.”
― Emily R. Austin, Interesting Facts about Space