Laurie Stone

2 weeks ago | lauriestone.substack.com | Laurie Stone

The other day, I looked in the mirrorand said, What would happen if you became the opposite of what you are? I tried it, and I could see I was still rubbish at it. What has changed is the way I look back. In the past, feeling a sense of failure about a relationship, I’d get that elevator dropping panic in my stomach, and then I’d quickly think there was all the time in the world to become something else. There isn't that sense of time now. Perhaps the truth is I didn't care enough to change.

1 month ago | theparisreview.org | Laurie Stone

By Laurie Stone April 17, 2025 Something has changed since Richard and I got married in December. I’m not sure what. Have you ever looked in the mirror and noticed you are able to cock one eyebrow higher than ever before? I’m happier. I didn’t imagine I would feel this way when I went downstairs to his studio and said, “I think we should get married.” He looked up from his book and said, “Okay.” Was he bemused, half smiling? I can’t remember.

Feb 9, 2025 | theshiftwithsambaker.substack.com | Laurie Stone |Amanda Montei

The Shift With Sam Baker is a reader-supported publication. If you enjoy my work and would like to help me continue to do it, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. SCROLLING• Debbie Harry: “I’m pretty clean now, but I’ve still got a dirty mind.” £• The case against budget culture. • “Let’s get married.” Love this piece by for on getting married in your 70s after 18 years together. • The anti-social century.

Jun 10, 2024 | lauriestone.substack.com | Laurie Stone

As I read old notebooks, I see how, in time, I’ve come to rewrite my life in ways that are consoling. I have unsoured the grapes of the past. The story I invented of my earlier years is one of reliable success, few obstacles, and lots of help—a kind of table laid where I was invited to eat. Buon appetito!What memory has sanded down and that the notebooks show is the way I felt in the face of rejection. And how much rejection there was. I wasn't a hero for pressing on. I didn’t believe in my abilities.

May 26, 2024 | lauriestone.substack.com | Laurie Stone

In my twenties, I thought if a man responded to me sexually it meant he liked me, and if he liked me he knew me in some way. We were naked and felt pleasure. This was a kind of knowing, a kind of sympathy. Even if I knew little about the man and little about myself, and even if we didn’t understand the sentences we exchanged after sex. Even if things soon went, oh dear, goodbye. I’m in my thirties or forties when I reverse this understanding or wishful fantasy.