Rachel Harrison > Quotes

“You can't erase your past when there are pieces of it scattered inside other people.”
― Rachel Harrison, The Return

“My problems aren't invalid. Not to me. Just because they aren't life altering, life-threatening, doesn't mean they don't make me feel bad. I wake up with them every morning, carry them around all day like a lead backpack, and I fall asleep with them at night. They're real, and they're mine. I know I'm lucky. I know that. But it doesn't change how I feel.”
― Rachel Harrison, The Return

“The world will drive a woman insane, then point at them and laugh.”
― Rachel Harrison, Play Nice

“What is it about a woman in full control of herself that is so utterly frightening?”
― Rachel Harrison, Cackle

“It isn’t fair that I have to live with this, but I have to live.”
― Rachel Harrison, Such Sharp Teeth

“I found it interesting that those who believed themselves righteous only ever cared about those who agreed with them, and were keen to let those who didn’t suffer whatever brutal fate. There seemed to me an inherent hypocrisy in faith itself.”
― Rachel Harrison, Black Sheep

“They're so excited for one day in a pretty dress... someone should really tell them. They can wear a retty dress whenever they want... Women are out there tethering themselves to mediocre men just so they can wear a ball gown. It's a shame.”
― Rachel Harrison, Cackle

“But friendships are mercurial. They're shape-shifters. I've learned to allow them to fluctuate and take new forms. I love my friends; that's all that matters.”
― Rachel Harrison, The Return

“I’d forgotten the difference between choosing not to participate and being excluded.”
― Rachel Harrison, Cackle

“There are many reasons why bad things happen to young women, and at the same time, no reason at all.”
― Rachel Harrison, The Return

“He fears because he is small. I will not meet him there. I will not shrink down to his size, or anyone else's, for their comfort, for their appeasement.”
― Rachel Harrison, Cackle

“Aging isn’t just about our bodies decaying while we’re still inside them. It’s about living with the accumulation of experiences. The heavy burden of the ugly ones, the longing for the beautiful.”
― Rachel Harrison, So Thirsty

“My eyes close, and it’s here. The transcendent knowledge that nothing can touch me. That I’m not in danger, because I am danger.”
― Rachel Harrison, Such Sharp Teeth

“I put my books on the shelves, arranging them alphabetically, only to change my mind and rearrange by color and then again by which books I think would be friends.”
― Rachel Harrison, Cackle

“It’s a miracle and it’s a curse, the secrets our bodies keep. The ability to carry the invisible burden of these secrets.”
― Rachel Harrison, Such Sharp Teeth

“I never realized how much bullshit is bound to the bottom of your hair. How it carries with it the years and experiences, all it has witnessed, has endured. The reason you can’t let go of your past is that it’s still attached. That weight on your shoulders, the strain on your back and neck. It’s your dead ends. Cut your hair! I’m going to scream it from the rooftops and while running down the street, all across America.”
― Rachel Harrison, Cackle

“When you’re sad, you cry. When you’re happy, you smile, you laugh. But what do you do when you’re angry? Not just mad, but filled with this ugly, consuming rage?”
― Rachel Harrison, Such Sharp Teeth

“I wondered what the difference was between being told to have faith and to be quiet. I suspected there wasn’t one.”
― Rachel Harrison, Black Sheep

“Some people need conspiracies, finding the simple horror of the truth too brutal.”
― Rachel Harrison, Black Sheep

“I feel like if I say anything bad about my pregnancy, suddenly I’m Casey Anthony.” “That’s crazy,” I say. “You’re way prettier.”
― Rachel Harrison, Such Sharp Teeth

“Any step away from the past is a step in the right direction.”
― Rachel Harrison, Cackle

“think it’s just easier to call someone crazy than it is to admit that they could be right. Easier to call someone crazy than to confront the nuance of their circumstance, than to accept the callous cruelty that exists in the world we live in, the evil out there that revels in our suffering.”
― Rachel Harrison, Play Nice

“But, you'll discover for yourself soon enough the things that devastate us most in the moment are always the things we look back on with such gratitude”
― Rachel Harrison, Cackle

“Fate is just another invention to trick us into complacency. Inaction. If one assumes that they cannot change their circumstances, they won’t try.”
― Rachel Harrison, Cackle

“I wonder how much of a woman's life is spent this way. Enduring. Waiting for enjoyment or, fuck it, death.”
― Rachel Harrison, Cackle

“Remembering is not always a light shone into darkness. Sometimes it’s a claw reaching out and dragging you back.”
― Rachel Harrison, Play Nice

“It’s a nice thing, to cook for yourself. To be good to yourself. To commit to and feed your own happiness.”
― Rachel Harrison, Cackle

“She recommended books. Books about being the child of immature parents. About healing from trauma. It gave me all this perspective I didn't know what to do with. And it hatched this anger. There was suddenly so much of it. Too much. I didn't know how to experience it. I didn't know how to hold it, where to put it. When you're sad, you cry. When you're happy, you smile, you laugh. But what do you do when you're angry? Not just mad, but filled with this ugly, consuming rage? And the thing is women aren't allowed to be angry. Nobody likes a mad woman. They're crazy. Irrational. Obnoxious. Shrill.”
― Rachel Harrison, Such Sharp Teeth

“I embrace the next morning with all the enthusiasm of a goat entering Jurassic Park.”
― Rachel Harrison, Cackle

“There’s no winning. The trauma is either your fault or it’s a gift. It’s either You should have done this to stop it or Look what good has come of it! If you don’t get over it, why can’t you get over it? Why can’t you get past it or learn how to cope? Or if you do find some way to move on with your life in a socially acceptable manner, then you’re so brave and so strong, and aren’t you amazing? Let’s applaud you for moving forward while there’s a knife at your back.”
― Rachel Harrison, Such Sharp Teeth