Robin Talley > Quotes

“Other people will try to decide things for you, she says. They'll try to tell you who you are. Remember, no matter what they say, you're the only who really decides.”
― Robin Talley, Lies We Tell Ourselves

“Sarah's right. We punish ourselves so much in our own imaginations. We convince ourselves everything we do, everything we think, is wrong.

For eighteen years I've believed what other people told me about what was right and what was wrong. From now. I'm deciding.”
― Robin Talley, Lies We Tell Ourselves

“That lovely face sets off a fire inside me that isn't ever supposed to burn.”
― Robin Talley, Lies We Tell Ourselves

“Lily had lived with the same pain for so long it felt like a part of her. The worst days, though, were when the pain was different. When it came faster, or harsher, or fiercer than she was used to. When it prickled instead of throbbed. When it attacked her right ankle instead of her left knee. When it woke her up at night instead of aching dully first thing in the morning. On those days, her standard-issue pain was replaced by something different and frightening, something that took over her body and left her without the slightest clue of when, or even if, it would release her.

Those times, her pain wasn’t a part of her anymore. Those times, she was a part of it.”
― Robin Talley, As I Descended

“What if this—this rule that says what I did in the back room that day is a terrible sin—what if that’s just a rule some old white man made up, too?”
― Robin Talley, Lies We Tell Ourselves

“I'd never been great at meeting people. I wasn't shy or anything, It was only that sometimes, with new people, I didn't know how exactly to start a conversation. I liked to listen first. You could learn a lot about someone that way.”
― Robin Talley, Our Own Private Universe

“The lipstick is a dark, dark red. The kind Hollywood stars wear. Not a shade good girls in Davisburg wear to the movies. I try it on anyway and gaze at my reflection in the mirror.

I don't look sick. I certainly don't look like that kind of girl.

What does that kind of girl look like, anyway?”
― Robin Talley, Lies We Tell Ourselves

“I was really good at sitting around and debating things in my head.”
― Robin Talley, Our Own Private Universe

“Between the atheism and the lesbian thing, Lily was a terrible Catholic. Even before she'd added murder to her list of sins.”
― Robin Talley, As I Descended

“That was when I forgot how to breathe altogether.”
― Robin Talley, Our Own Private Universe

“My life was bigger than any one person.”
― Robin Talley, Our Own Private Universe

“Girls like me smiled politely and always did the right thing. Girls like me definitely didn't sneak away at night to do things that would crush their fathers. And if they did, girls like me knew how to keep it to themselves.”
― Robin Talley, Our Own Private Universe

“Now you listen and you listen good." [Mama's] voice is so quiet it scares me. "Nobody's going to let us be anything. We have just as much right to this world as they have, and we are not going to wait around for them to give us permission.”
― Robin Talley, Lies We Tell Ourselves

“Last year I told Lori I thought I might be bi. Ever since, whenever she saw me looking at another girl, she asked if I liked her. Lori didn't get that sometimes it was fun just to notice people without having to think about whether you liked them or not.”
― Robin Talley, Our Own Private Universe

“Frankly, it's self-evident. As people of faith, it's our duty to love everyone, the way God loves everyone. There's no reason why any one group is less deserving of love - either the love of a church community, to the love of a family - than any other.”
― Robin Talley, Our Own Private Universe

“It could be our own private universe.”
― Robin Talley, Our Own Private Universe

“If I wanted to have an interesting life - which I did - then there was no point sitting around debating everything in my head on a constant loop. If I wanted my life to change, then Had to do something. Or at least try.”
― Robin Talley, Our Own Private Universe

“Lie #1

There's no need to be afraid.”
― Robin Talley, Lies We Tell Ourselves

“The only thing I know for sure is that this summer, I want to be with you. Sometimes I wish I could make everything else go away and have it only be you and me in our own little world.”
― Robin Talley, Our Own Private Universe

“In that moment, it felt like we were the entire world. Just me and those gorgeous stars.”
― Robin Talley, Our Own Private Universe

“The values many of us take for granted today are the result of hard-fought battles that happened years, decades and centuries ago. Working alongside the civil right leaders we revere today, lik Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks, there were hundreds, if not thousands, of now-forgotten activists who sacrificed everything they had so people today could live the way we do. Every generation needs to remember that--and to remember that it's up to us to make sacrifices of our own for the ones who will come next.”
― Robin Talley, Lies We Tell Ourselves

“First, though, she had to go back out there and smile at everyone. Fake her way through the rest of the night and another three days. Pretend to still be normal.

When she was pretty sure she never had been.”
― Robin Talley, As I Descended

“This is who I am. And I like me this way. And I think God just might like me this way, too.”
― Robin Talley, Lies We Tell Ourselves

“Lie #3

I don't care what they think of me.”
― Robin Talley, Lies We Tell Ourselves

“Lie #4

I'm not lonely.”
― Robin Talley, Lies We Tell Ourselves

“Lie #6

I'm not strong enough for this.”
― Robin Talley, Lies We Tell Ourselves

“Lie #2

I'm sure I'm doing the right thing.”
― Robin Talley, Lies We Tell Ourselves

“Lie #7

They won't really hurt me.”
― Robin Talley

“When you loved someone, you loved all of them even the too-much parts.”
― Robin Talley, Pulp

“I didn't ever want this to end.”
― Robin Talley, Our Own Private Universe