Everyone, this is the new girl. Elder knows her. New girl, this is everyone.” A few people look up politely; some actually smile. Most, however, look wary at best, disgusted at worse. The nurse closest to me jabs her finger behind her ear and starts whispering to nobody.“What’s wrong with her?” I ask Harley as he leads me to the table he was sitting at.“Oh, don’t worry, we’re all mad here.”I giggle, mostly from nerves. “It’s a good thing I read Alice in Wonder-land . I definitely think I’ve fallen into the rabbit hole.”“Read what?” Harley asks.“Never mind.” All around me, eyes follow my every move.“Look,” I say loudly. “I know I look different. But I’m just a person, like you.” I hold my head up high, looking them all in the eyes, trying to hold their stares for as long as possible.“You tell ’em,” says Harley with another Cheshire grin.

~ Beth Revis

Beth Revis Across The Universe Alice In Wonderland Amy Martin Cheshire Different Down The Rabbit Hole Harley Introducing Mad Nerves Stranger We Are All Mad Here

As in so many cases of sexual abuse within the family, it is much more complicated than had it been done by a stranger.

~ Erin Merryn

Erin Merryn Child Abuse Child Abuse Prevention Complicated Family Sexual Abuse Stranger Survivor Trigger

You can just be your self’s stranger, never its friend, because you are mortal and it is immortal!

~ Sorin Cerin

Sorin Cerin Stranger Wisdom Inspirational

There is no loneliness greater than the loneliness of a failure. The failure is a stranger in his own house.

~ Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer Loneliness House Stranger

Death most resembles a prophet who is without honor in his own land or a poet who is a stranger among his people.

~ Khalil Gibran

Khalil Gibran Honor People Stranger

Truth is always strange, stranger than fiction.

~ Lord Byron

Lord Byron Strange Truth Is Stranger

You don't have to sort of enhance reality. There is nothing stranger than truth.

~ Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz Reality You Stranger

For, to be a stranger is naturally a very positive relation; it is a specific form of interaction.

~ Georg Simmel

Georg Simmel Interaction Stranger

Never floss with a stranger.

~ Joan Rivers

Joan Rivers Never Stranger

Smile at a stranger. See what happens.

~ Patti Lupone

Patti Lupone See Stranger Happens

From the beginnings of literature, poets and writers have based their narratives on crossing borders, on wandering, on exile, on encounters beyond the familiar. The stranger is an archetype in epic poetry, in novels. The tension between alienation and assimilation has always been a basic theme.

~ Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa Lahiri Literature Stranger