Brenda Janowitz > Quotes

“The dress only means something if you want it to. What is important are the people behind it. When it comes to these things that are handed down from generation to generation, each woman leaves her own mark on it, so that it tells ours story, stitch by stitch.”
― Brenda Janowitz, The Grace Kelly Dress

“PICK YOUR FABRIC “The importance of this step cannot be understated. If you pick the wrong fabric, your dress is doomed from the start. Pick a fabric that has the right weight, that will flatter the design. And the figure of the bride who will wear it. Once you pick your fabric, the die is cast. There is no going back.”
― Brenda Janowitz, The Grace Kelly Dress

“We need to remember the past so that we can more clearly see where we are going.”
― Brenda Janowitz, The Grace Kelly Dress

“There’s no such thing as the biggest mistake,” her mother said. “There’s only what you do and what you don’t do.”
― Brenda Janowitz, The Grace Kelly Dress

“Always having to rely on herself, she had a hard time accepting the kindness of others, and her first instinct was always to say no.”
― Brenda Janowitz, The Grace Kelly Dress

“PUT THE PIECES TOGETHER “Now is the moment you’ve been waiting for. Some have been waiting their entire lives. It is time to put your dress together. It is time to prepare for the future.” —Excerpted from Creating the Illusion by Madame Michel,
Paris, 1954 Forty-Nine The bride”
― Brenda Janowitz, The Grace Kelly Dress

“These things we hold on to, they are more than just things. They prove our history, who we are, where we came from.”
― Brenda Janowitz, The Grace Kelly Dress

“MAKE THE FIRST CUT “This step is not for the faint of heart. There is no going back. It is time to make the first cut. Are you sure you have made all the right choices? Are you pleased with your plan? Do not make your first cut until you are absolutely, positively sure.” —Excerpted from Creating the Illusion by Madame Michel,
Paris, 1954”
― Brenda Janowitz, The Grace Kelly Dress

“Maybe this is the recipe for a happy life -- not thinking about anything too hard, just going where the day takes you, trying to enjoy yourself, instead of analyzing every second.”
― Brenda Janowitz, Recipe for a Happy Life

“Sex can be complicated,” her mother said. “But it’s just sex.” “That’s so French of you,” Joanie said, her tears giving way to laughter. “What sort of mother would say that to her daughter?”
― Brenda Janowitz, The Grace Kelly Dress

“This overly accepting display of mixed message blessing-giving was making her feel ill. Therapist or not, having a child tell you that they want to set off and find their birth mother could not be easy. And then the added bonus that said child also wanted to invite said birth mother to his wedding? Impossible. And Drew’s mother had to pretend that everything was okay, that this decision was fine with her, even though it had to be difficult. When Rocky and Drew left, what would his parents say about it? Would Drew’s mother discuss it with her own therapist?”
― Brenda Janowitz, The Grace Kelly Dress

“The style was bohemian, but expensive. So, you might sit down on a couch that was soft and comfortable, looked like it had been purchased in the 1970s with its mismatched fabrics and wild color scheme, but then you’d later learn that the couch came from Roche Bobois and cost over forty thousand dollars.”
― Brenda Janowitz, The Grace Kelly Dress

“You can be whoever you want to be. You belong to me and I belong to you, no matter what. And I will love you no matter what.”
― Brenda Janowitz, The Grace Kelly Dress

“Everything. Anything that’s not important. The things that drive you crazy. The things that make you tear the hairs out of your head, one by one. The idea that we have to be perfect, the idea that we have to be good, the idea that we can be happy when all we’re trying to do is live up to someone else’s expectations. I felt it, I know you feel it, too—the weight of what we’re expected to do. What people want us to be. Let go of all of it and just be. See where that takes you. Yes, your feet will be caked in sand, and you’ll be in desperate need of a shower, but you might just like it.”
― Brenda Janowitz, The Dinner Party

“This is the kind of person you marry—someone who loves the worst parts of you, someone who knows how to make you laugh even when you’re mad as hell.”
― Brenda Janowitz, The Grace Kelly Dress

“Marriage can’t be successful if the man doesn’t love the woman more. The woman is the one who holds a marriage together, who works at it day after day, but she can’t do it if the man is not fully, completely committed.”
― Brenda Janowitz, Recipe for a Happy Life

“More than one thing can be true at once.”
― Brenda Janowitz, The Liz Taylor Ring

“the ring was a symbol of their family, even though it was—flawed, but ultimately lovable. Difficult to wear or even figure out, but still theirs. Beautiful and messy and imperfect and deeper than it first appeared.”
― Brenda Janowitz, The Liz Taylor Ring

“Excerpted from Creating the Illusion by Madame Michel,
Paris, 1954”
― Brenda Janowitz, The Grace Kelly Dress

“sometimes if you start to smile, your body catches up and you start to feel happy.”
― Brenda Janowitz, The Liz Taylor Ring

“None of these stories are true. All of these stories are true. More than one thing can be true at once.”
― Brenda Janowitz, The Liz Taylor Ring

“The ring was real, the ring was fake. The ring was a symbol for everything, the ring was just a ring. All of these stories are true. None of these stories are true. More than one thing can be true at once.”
― Brenda Janowitz, The Liz Taylor Ring

“It didn’t symbolize their love,” Courtney said. “It symbolized all the ways that love can go wrong. It was real, then it was not, it was stolen, it was retrieved. Maybe the ring is bad luck.”
― Brenda Janowitz, The Liz Taylor Ring

“a part of you, Kitten, he said. And you’re a part of me. I’m always going to be there. Always going to be in your heart. You don’t have to let go of me just to get closer to her. Love makes us stronger, bigger. The heart expands with love. There isn’t a finite amount.”
― Brenda Janowitz, The Grace Kelly Dress

“People call off weddings all the time. There’s no shame in admitting that you’re not ready to get married.”
― Brenda Janowitz, The Grace Kelly Dress