Beth Pattillo > Quotes

“I took my time, running my fingers along the spines of books, stopping to pull a title from the shelf and inspect it. A sense of well-being flowed through me as I circled the ground floor. It was better than meditation or a new pair of shoes- or even chocolate. My life was a disaster, but there were still books. Lots and lots of books. A refuge. A solace. Each one offering the possibility of a new beginning.”
― Beth Pattillo, Jane Austen Ruined My Life

“Heartbreak is more common than happiness. No one wants to say that, but it's true. We're taught to believe not only that everyone deserves a happy ending, but that if we try hard enough, we will get one. That's simply no the case. Happy endings, life long loves, are the products of both effort and luck. We can control them, to some extent and though our feelings always seem to have a life of their own, we can at least be open to love. But, luck, the other component, well there's nothing we can do about that one. Call it God's plan or predestination or divine intervention, but we're all at its mercy. And sometimes God isn't very merciful. Jane taught me that.”
― Beth Pattillo, Jane Austen Ruined My Life

“The thing about obsessing about a happy ending is that you forget to enjoy the journey along the way, You forget to appreciate the people alongside you.”
― Beth Pattillo, Jane Austen Ruined My Life

“Women never thought beyond the happy ending. We'd been taught to believe that our world revolved around securing a commitment from a man.”
― Beth Pattillo, Jane Austen Ruined My Life

“I could blame my lack of a happy ending on Edward all day long but the truth was that my own dissatisfaction with my life wasn't anybody's fault but mine. I'd been looking for a man to sweep me off my feet when I should have been looking for one who willing to pick up the pieces. Not some fictional hero, but a real flesh-and-blood man. Someone who would love me for the long haul.”
― Beth Pattillo, Jane Austen Ruined My Life

“Heartbreak is more common than happiness. No one wants to say that, but it's true. We're taught to believe not only that everyone deserves a happy ending, but also that if we try hard enough, we will get one. That's simply not the case. Happy endings, lifelong loves, are the products of both effort and luck. We can control them, to some extent, and though our feelings always seem to have a life of their own, we can at least be open to love.”
― Beth Pattillo, Jane Austen Ruined My Life

“I was learning, even in my brief time in England, that a cup of tea almost always helped. I didn't know whether it was the caffeine, the warmth, or the simple fact of having someone else do something kind, but a soothing cup of tea in Harriet Dalrymple's cottage was fast becoming my lifeline to sanity.”
― Beth Pattillo

“Have some more tea, dear," Hester said, reaching for the pot and refilling my cup. "I always find that helps.”
― Beth Pattillo

“Marriages are buffeted by more important things, like money and sex and children and jobs and in-laws, in constantly changing combinations.”
― Beth Pattillo, Jane Austen Ruined My Life

“...I thought he was the man I'd been waiting for. A hero right out of Austen. The one who would finally make everything okay. Only he wasn't real. Like Austen's characters, he was fiction. Mr. Darcy broke my heart.”
― Beth Pattillo, Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart

“For many years, biographers and scholars, beginning with her great nephew James Austen-Leigh, presented her as a quiet, reserved, proper woman, but one has only to read her novels to realize that she was nothing so bland. Her genius, her craft, and her timeless prose are no secret, but thanks to Cassandra's scissors, most other aspects of her life will probably remain a mystery. ”
― bETH pATTILLO

“I’m quiet for a long moment, and Velva just sits with me, waiting. She’s good at that. Just being a companion, not pushing or prodding, but waiting as if she has all the time in the world. Why is it that a woman of 94, who probably has very little time left, can be far more patient that an woman of 30 who has a lot of years ahead of her?”
― Beth Pattillo, Heavens to Betsy

“..it was time I gave up my foolish, romantic notions of happily-ever-afters… Women never thought beyond the happy ending. We’d been taught to believe that our world revolved around securing a commitment from a man”
― Beth Pattillo, Jane Austen Ruined My Life

“My life was a disaster, but there were still books. Lots and lots of books. A refuge. A solace. Each one offering the possibility of a new beginning. Had”
― Beth Pattillo, Jane Austen Ruined My Life

“Facades were heavy armor in the end. They might protect you, but they took a great deal of strength to lug around.”
― Beth Pattillo, The Sweetgum Knit Lit Society

“and though her life had not been what her more youthful self would have dreamed, it had been unmistakably, irrevocably hers.”
― Beth Pattillo, Jane Austen Ruined My Life

“Yes, it would be wonderful if all love stories turned out like one of Austen’s novels, but real life didn’t work that way. Not my real life, anyway. Not Jane’s, either”
― Beth Pattillo, Jane Austen Ruined My Life

“The value of a thing always depends upon your point of view.”
― Beth Pattillo, Jane Austen Ruined My Life