Raphael Bob-Waksberg

Written with all the scathing dark humor that is a hallmark of BoJack Horseman, Raphael Bob-Waksberg's stories will make you laugh, weep, and shiver in uncomfortably delicious recognition. In "A Most Blessed and Auspicious Occasion," a young couple engaged to be married is forced to deal with interfering relatives dictating the appropriate number of ritual goat sacrifices for their wedding. "Missed Connection-m4w" is the tragicomic tale of a pair of lonely commuters eternally failing to make that longed-for contact. And in "More of the You That You Already Are," a struggling employee at a theme park of dead presidents finds that love can't be genetically modified. Equally at home with the surreal and the painfully relatable (and both at once), Bob-Waksberg delivers a killer combination of humor, romance, whimsy, cultural commentary, and crushing emotional vulnerability.

Stories

Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory

Caitlin

And I thought about how, actually, if you wanted to, you could say the same thing about life. That life is terrifying and overwhelming and it can happen at any moment. And when you're confronted with life you can either be cowardly or you can be brave, but either way you're going to live. So you might as well be brave.

Sasha Maiboroda

And I think about how loving someone is kind of like being president, in that it doesn't change you, not really. But it brings out more of the you that you already are.

Helen 

Elizabeth Denny

3. "You're not like other girls," he said to every girl.

𝓬𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓲𝓮

Maybe you are right to be cautious. You have been lied to before, after all. Your heart is weathered and scarred, mishandled by many, eroded by time. You're no dummy, and yet repeatedly, you stumble over the cracks of your cobblestone heart, you let your naked foolish hopes get the better of you. Perhaps every can of cashews has a fake snake lurking, but you keep opening them, stupidly, because in your heart of hearts you still believe in cashews. And every time you discover the cruel fiction of the cashew can, you swear to yourself you'll trust a little less next time, you'll be a little less open, a little more hard. It's not worth it, you say. It just isn't worth it. You're smarter than all that. From now on, you're going to be smarter. Well, I'm here to tell you that this time will be different, even though I have absolutely no evidence to support that claim. Open this can and everything will be okay. The salted circus cashews are waiting. They are so savory and delicious. You will be so glad you put your faith in me. This time is different; I promise you it's different. Why would I lie to you? Why would I want to hurt you? This time there is no snake waiting. This time things are going to be wonderful.

He had this really amazing party trick where sometimes he could go a full hour without even once being suddenly reminded of the paralyzing truth that his life was finite and unrepeatable.

"I don't think you really love me; I think you're just terrified of being alone," and you, gesticulating wildly with the spatula, spat back without thinking, "I am alone; you have no idea how alone I am," as if that were some kind of comeback. 

“If the two of us are ever going to move forward, at some point, you're going to have to stop looking backward."

I’ll be sitting on a train. I’ll be lying awake in bed. I'll be watching a movie; I’ll be laughing. And then, all of a sudden, I'l be struck by the paralyzing truth: It's not what we do that makes us who we are. It's what we don't do that defines us. 

And you thought about how even though this scenario was made up, there was something so truthful about it because FACT: The things that are the most important aren't shared; they are important only to us.

For some reason I had this idea that I was really special and that I was put here to do something really great and important, but the longer I kept living the more it just seemed like nope, I'm just kind of a normal person just like everybody else.

Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory quotes

Join the club