Renée Rosen > Quotes

“I was scared. Nothing feels solid anymore. Security had been yanked out from under me. I wanted to tell her how much I loved her. She just had to know how much. My grandfather had been old; he was supposed to die. Parents weren't. It was in my mother's arms when it hit me. Every day brought you that much closer to losing the ones you loved. Death would always find you, and there was nothing you could do about it.”
― Renee Rosen, Every Crooked Pot

“Helen had given me permission to pursue what I wanted, and as a result, I knew myself better—what I liked, what I didn’t. Most important, I had discovered what I deserved.”
― Renee Rosen, Park Avenue Summer

“I realized then that there are moments when life seems to be happening to you. These are those moments that you later reflect on, wondering how you survived them. Getting the injections in my eye was like that. So were the laser treatments. It was even a little like that when I lost my virginity. These are moments that change and shape you, and they’re so imposing that you can’t stay present for them. So you slip away, someplace safe inside yourself, and wait for the storm to pass.”
― Renee Rosen, Every Crooked Pot: A novel

“I find it so funny that you’re nervous about a woman editing a magazine for women.”
― Renée Rosen, Park Avenue Summer

“before they were to be married. They stayed”
― Renee Rosen, What the Lady Wants: A Novel of Marshall Field and the Gilded Age

“Don’t you see? Helen Gurley Brown is still telling us that we need a man to be fulfilled. Betty Friedan is telling us that we already have everything we need within ourselves.”
― Renée Rosen, Park Avenue Summer

“know her, and at the end of the day, Estée did whatever she had to do to get what she wanted.”
― Renée Rosen, Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl

“That was the sort of thing she found interesting, but she wouldn’t ask again. She wouldn’t beg to be taken seriously.”
― Renee Rosen, What the Lady Wants: A Novel of Marshall Field and the Gilded Age

“Practically my whole life had been given over to daydreaming. The here and now didn’t satisfy me. I wanted bigger, better, more.”
― Renee Rosen, Park Avenue Summer

“She didn’t always get the jokes, nor was she able to follow the non sequiturs that had them shifting from topic to topic like trains switching tracks. At times it was as if they spoke a different language.”
― Renee Rosen, The Social Graces

“I rolled over and flipped my pillow to the cool side, where I lay sleepless until my alarm went off, and it was time to get up and face this uncertain world all over again.”
― Renée Rosen, Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl

“We ordered two egg plates that came with hash browns, rye toast and a rasher of bacon for 35¢, along with two bottomless coffees, a nickel a cup.”
― Renée Rosen, Park Avenue Summer

“It was there, in his reflection, that I found my worth.”
― Renee Rosen, Dollface: A Novel of the Roaring Twenties

“The point is, none of us are completely authentic, exempt from playing with the slippery truth. But just how far we’ll go, and which lines we refuse to cross, is for each of us to determine.”
― Renée Rosen, Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl

“I know her, and at the end of the day, Estée did whatever she had to do to get what she wanted.”
― Renée Rosen

“Leeba considered herself to be an American first—a Jewish American rather than an American Jew.”
― Renée Rosen, Windy City Blues

“Give the lady what she wants.” —Marshall Field”
― Renee Rosen, What the Lady Wants: A Novel of Marshall Field and the Gilded Age

“Because I loved Estée. Because I admired her. I drew strength and courage from her. I needed her in my life. To me, Estee was a sterling example of how to get ahead on pure determination and honest hard work. My father had failed me in that respect, but Estée, well, Estée was my role model, even if I couldn't always follow her advice.”
― Renée Rosen, Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl

“She feared she’d never be fulfilled. It happened every time. Just when she thought she had all that she wanted, that her cup had indeed runneth over, some trapdoor inside her would open and let everything drain out, leaving her empty once again.”
― Renée Rosen, The Social Graces

“grazing the dripping, crumbling tunnel walls. The water was up to my ankles now and I could barely feel my feet; my toes had long”
― Renee Rosen, Dollface: A Novel of the Roaring Twenties

“Such a spectacle. She caught herself staring and at one point even laughing, both tickled and appalled. The whole thing was just that absurd.”
― Renée Rosen, The Social Graces

“If you’re a fan of business capers, I highly recommend Toy Monster by Jerry Oppenheimer and Barbie and Ruth by Robin Gerber. Ruth Handler’s own biography, Dream Doll, paints yet another version. I leave it up to the reader to decide what really happened.”
― Renée Rosen, Let's Call Her Barbie

“Is it fear or just plain hypocrisy? My mother treats Aileen and regards other Negroes with the same kind of disdain and disrespect that she complains the Jews always get. But she refuses to see it that way.” Red”
― Renée Rosen, Windy City Blues

“secret”
― Renée Rosen, Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl

“...and it's those moments--when you're worried sick over the possibility of losing him--that you realize how much you've come to depend on him. For the little things like carrying the groceries and changing the lightbulb in your closet, or scratching that place between your shoulder blades that you can't reach.”
― Renee Rosen, Park Avenue Summer

“She felt more at ease in the midst of a construction site than she did at one of those society luncheons.”
― Renée Rosen, The Social Graces

“The two never made up after their argument. But they were brothers. They didn’t need to.”
― Renée Rosen, Windy City Blues

“So what are you worried about?”
― Renee Rosen, Dollface: A Novel of the Roaring Twenties

“You did the right thing,” I said. “If I did the right thing, why do I feel so awful?” “Aw, sweetie, that’s the price you have to pay for your dignity and self-respect.”
― Renée Rosen, Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl

“There was no denying it; Alva led with her money because, without it, she didn’t believe she had anything of value to offer.”
― Renée Rosen, The Social Graces