Maria Adelmann > Quotes

“Morals create a labyrinth of rules geared toward blaming the victim”
― Maria Adelmann, How to Be Eaten

“What I want, desperately, is for someone to sit next to me for a moment and hold my hand and say one kind thing I didn’t know was true.”
― Maria Adelmann, Girls of a Certain Age

“But something changes after tragedy,” she says. “It’s like you’ve spent your whole life putting one foot in front of the other, knowing the ground would always be there to meet you, and then suddenly, one day… it isn’t. The bottom has dropped out. The unbelievable happens and you just… fall.”
― Maria Adelmann, How to Be Eaten

“What if, for some of us, moving on involves finding good in the bad? Or being thankful for how we changed? That doesn't mean we wished it to happen.”
― Maria Adelmann, How to Be Eaten

“How could I have never smoked, not in all twenty-three years of my life? How many hours of work have I spent working when I could have been on a cigarette break? How many friends might I have made, standing around that ashtray, a happy tingle in my brain? How many times (all of those evenings at bars!) have I said no?”
― Maria Adelmann, Girls of a Certain Age

“You can’t change the past, but it’s infinitely reframeable. You can tell the same story over and over a hundred different ways, and every version is a little right and every version is a little wrong.”
― Maria Adelmann, How to Be Eaten

“Be patient, be kind, be good, say please, say thank you, don't speak unless spoken to" - her voice is rising, quickening - "don't forget to smile, don't give it all away, don't disobey your teachers..." She stops suddenly, looks round at the group to see if they are with her.
"Your boyfriend", Bernice adds.
"Your husband", says Raina
" Your producers", says Ashlee
"But don't, you know, follow them blindly either" Ruby says.”
― Maria Adelmann, How to Be Eaten

“Maybe don't even be out there, on the street, no if it's dark, not if you're alone, not if you're a kid, not if you're a woman, not without a rape whistle around you neck, not without pepper spray clutched in your hand, not, anyway if you're wearing that outfit."
"But, I mean, don't be a prude either," says Ashlee, pulling at the hem of her dress.”
― Maria Adelmann, How to Be Eaten

“Maybe just don't leave the house at all", Gretel pipes in. "Maybe stay home".
"But isn't that where accidents happen?" says Ashlee.
"So lock all of the doors", says Ruby.
"Doesn't always help", says Bernice.
"Don't let anyone in," says Ashlee.
(...)
"Especiallynot if you trust them", says Gretel.”
― Maria Adelmann, How to Be Eaten

“it is nice to have a person so close to my mouth, even if he is holding a drill.”
― Maria Adelmann, Girls of a Certain Age

“In pictures, Grace’s parents are always drinking translucent cocktails next to terrible things like horses or politicians or rosebushes.”
― Maria Adelmann, Girls of a Certain Age

“He reminds them that they are unique. They've each been through a trauma that played out, in some way, publicly. "People know of you, but do they know you?" he asks. No, they concur, shaking their heads, people don't know them at all.”
― Maria Adelmann, How to Be Eaten

“Tragedy isn’t capital,” says Gretel. “It doesn’t buy you anything. It doesn’t automatically make you a better person. And it certainly doesn’t make people fall in love with you.”
― Maria Adelmann, How to Be Eaten

“If you separated us into our different environments—me in this messy apartment, him in the desert wearing fatigues or at home with his wife—you could no longer tell that we had come from the same place, but neither could you determine when we’d diverged, what choices we had made or what choices had been made for us.”
― Maria Adelmann, Girls of a Certain Age

“You're supposed to bear witness, not enjoy it,' says Bernice. 'It's not supposed to be entertainment”
― Maria Adelmann, How to Be Eaten

“I tell the guys that I understand. It seems unfair of me to handle it any other way. I give them reasons that they cannot come up with themselves. “You are still emotionally tied up in your previous relationship,” I say. “We’re coworkers, after all,” I say.”
― Maria Adelmann, Girls of a Certain Age

“a financial safety net that would allow her to try and try and try until she succeeded, until she could say she had worked hard and it had finally paid off, that success was a matter of pluck, not luck of the draw.”
― Maria Adelmann, How to Be Eaten

“You have pickle juice on your skirt, Audrey,” said Julie.”
― Maria Adelmann, Girls of a Certain Age

“It was like there had been an earthquake inside of me, like I had been hollowed by it, and now I was left to live in the ruins.”
― Maria Adelmann, How to Be Eaten

“Nobody listens to what they don't want to hear. Nobody”
― Maria Adelmann

“What’s even the point of asking that?” says Ruby. “We can’t go back.” “Yeah,” agrees Bernice. “Maybe it’s not a thought we should entertain if we’re trying to accept what happened and move forward. What if, for some of us, moving on involves finding good in the bad? Or being thankful for how we changed? That doesn’t mean we wished it to happen.”
― Maria Adelmann, How to Be Eaten

“imply that Marissa is talking to a squirrel.”
― Maria Adelmann, How to Be Eaten

“Maybe don’t even be out there, on the street, not if it’s dark, not if you’re alone, not if you’re a kid, not if you’re a woman, not without a rape whistle around your neck, not without pepper spray clutched in your hand, not, anyway, if you’re wearing that outfit.”
― Maria Adelmann, How to Be Eaten

“There’s a disconcerting power dynamic. You’re at his beck and call. You drop everything whenever he wants. “You know it’s cheaper for him to buy you a Fabergé egg than for you to buy him dinner at McDonald’s?”
― Maria Adelmann, How to Be Eaten