Stephanie Grant > Quotes

“I had always liked my anorexic reflection. It meant seeing the parts instead of the whole. Each connection, each articulation of muscle, skin, and bone made explicit. Gert said that we all had distorted images of ourselves. Either fatter or skinnier than we really were. She said we hated our bodies, hated ourselves. I had never thought so.”
― Stephanie Grant

“I was used to being perceived as having a good attitude. Self-control, self-effacement, self-denial. People like this, especially in girls.”
― Stephanie Grant, The Passion of Alice

“Listen for what you identify with, not for what makes you different.”
― Stephanie Grant, The Passion of Alice

“I'm only afraid of getting fat.”
― Stephanie Grant, The Passion of Alice

“At first when you're learning a foreign language, what seems strange is that a different set of words exists for the things you know. But then, after a while, what seems strange is that so many words are the same, that two entirely different peoples, an ocean apart, would choose the exact same sounds. In the end, what causes the most trouble are the words that sound the same but mean different things: déception, nostalgie, grâce.”
― Stephanie Grant, Map of Ireland

“I had this awareness of Elly, this pleasant, physical recognition of her, which made me conscious of my own body whenever we talked. Like in those TV movies when there's a kid inside a robot moving levers to make the robot arms extend and the robot knees flex, and things go pretty smoothly until the kid gets nervous and pulls the wrong lever and the knee comes up for a handshake and the fingers open when they're supposed to close. It's like there's a second self inside your regular self and it's constantly going, "Now take the ice cubes from Elly. Now smile." It's a perpetual monologue inside your head, which is why it can be hard to make conversation with the girl you're actually talking to.”
― Stephanie Grant, Map of Ireland: A Novel

“Sometimes, when you do something daring, something that will change the rest of your life, you have to tell yourself, step by step, what it is you are doing. You have to go over it and over it so as not to lose heart.”
― Stephanie Grant, Map of Ireland: A Novel

“Still, I couldn't shake the thought: what could we offer each other outside of cruelty?”
― Stephanie Grant, The Passion of Alice