Holly Bourne > Quotes

“Because now people use the phrase OCD to describe minor personality quirks. "Oooh, I like my pens in a line, I'm so OCD."
NO YOU'RE FUCKING NOT.
"Oh my God, I was so nervous about that presentation, I literally had a panic attack."
NO YOU FUCKING DIDN'T.
"I'm so hormonal today. I just feel totally bipolar."
SHUT UP, YOU IGNORANT BUMFACE.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“Everyone's on the cliff edge of normal. Everyone finds life an utter nightmare sometimes, and there's no 'normal' way of dealing with it... There is no normal, Evelyn.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“Being interesting isn't important. But being happy is. As well as being a person you're proud of”
― Holly Bourne, The Manifesto on How to Be Interesting

“Love isn't just a feeling. Love is a choice too. And you may not be able to help your feelings, but you are responsible for the choices you make about what to do with them.”
― Holly Bourne, It Only Happens in the Movies

“The only love affair I needed to invest in right now was one with myself. Spend some time with me. Figuring out myself and why I picked the relationships I did. I was holding out my heart to me. Because I'd realised I was the only person who could give me a happily-ever-after.”
― Holly Bourne, It Only Happens in the Movies

“Abuse is also when your personality is attacked, not just your body. Abuse is feeling like you constantly have to walk on eggshells around the person you're supposed to love. Abuse is being cut off from your friends, even if you could never prove it was their idea you did it. Abuse is being made to feel you're going crazy. Abuse is being lured in with grand promises and wild declarations of love that can never be sustained. Abuse is being pushed into doing sexual things you're not comfortable with. That is also called rape, another word that has taken me some time to feel belongs to me. Abuse is intentionally humiliating you. Abuse is constantly blaming you for everything, and never them.”
― Holly Bourne, The Places I've Cried in Public

“Bad stuff happens, people are mean, there are no steps you can take that ensure the world leaves you alone. All you can do is try not to be one of those people who contributes to the bad.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“Do you ever wonder,” he asked, “how we decide what’s mad and what isn’t? There’s so much crazy stuff in the world – everything’s a mess most of the time – but then people who can’t handle it are called mental and have films made about them… But what if they’re just reacting to the weirdness of the universe? Isn’t it more weird to just think everything’s okay, when it clearly isn’t?”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“Mental illnesses grab you by the leg, screaming, and chow you down whole.They make you selfish. They make you irrational. They make you irrational. They make you self-absorbed. They make you needy. They make you cancel plans last minute. They make you not very fun to spend time with. They make you exhausting to be near.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“Being a woman, in this world, ultimately makes you crazy.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“No one ever tells you how much a heartbreak physically hurts. How it literally feels like you've been kicked down the stairs. How you can't swallow. How every muscle aches. How your heart lurches inside you like it's been poisoned. Nobody tells you that.”
― Holly Bourne, It Only Happens in the Movies

“Failure is never getting hurt. Because that means you've not done anything you cared about.”
― Holly Bourne, How Hard Can Love Be?

“Crying is a very obvious sign that something isn’t going right in your life. You should not ignore tears.”
― Holly Bourne, The Places I've Cried in Public

“Happy endings are reserved strictly for the fiction shelves of bookstores”
― Holly Bourne, Soulmates

“Do you ever worry you’re being a teenager wrong?” I thought of the last three years. “I KNOW I’m being one wrong.” “I mean, what’s wrong with finding songs glorifying domestic violence offensive? What’s wrong with finding live music too loud? What’s wrong with a nice cup of tea and a chat?”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“What is love?
Maybe it's something else. Maybe it's not what we've been told it its. Maybe it's boring words like security and safety, warmth and growth. Maybe it's the comfort of knowing someone really well and them knowing you back. Maybe it's kisses where you sometimes bump noses but you can laugh it off? Maybe it's never getting butterflies because you always know where you stand?”
― Holly Bourne, The Places I've Cried in Public

“Be someone you would want to read about.”
― Holly Bourne

“Sometimes that's all you can do in life, when it comes to pain - try and understand it. We all carry scars and scorch marks around with us. We cuddle up each night with ghosts of damaging memories - we let them swirl around our heads, never able to settle or heal because we can't make sense of this terrible thing that happened to us, and why we're finding it so impossible to get over. You can't force pain to leave until it's ready to.”
― Holly Bourne, The Places I've Cried in Public

“Life doesn't happen to you. You can't just sit on a park bench and expect amazing things to whizz by on a conveyor belt. Life is what you put into it.”
― Holly Bourne, The Manifesto on How to Be Interesting

“All I'm saying is, love changes over time. No person is ever perfect for another person”
― Holly Bourne, It Only Happens in the Movies

“It’s such a simple torture – the silent treatment. As basic as tripping someone over or pulling their chair out before they sit down. And yet it’s so very effective. When someone has the willpower to pretend you’re not there, it nullifies you. How do you fight against that humiliation?”
― Holly Bourne, The Places I've Cried in Public

“When you fight for what you believe in, you come across a lot of obstacles. People who don't agree with you, people who agree with you but only some bits, people who delight in ripping you down, people who are threatened by the strength of your belief.

But I was beginning to realise, the biggest hurdle to overcome was the hurdle of yourself.”
― Holly Bourne, What's a Girl Gotta Do?

“Choose life. Choose love. And always remember to live.”
― Holly Bourne, The Manifesto on How to Be Interesting

“He smiled without his teeth. Small, shyly. I found myself smiling back. Like an impulse
Then he ruined it by saying…
"You're not like other girls, are you?"
And I activated.
Every single emotion I'd been squashing into my guts exploded like a burst appendix. I jumped off the bed and turned to him with a scowl I was sure he'd need permanent therapy to recover from.
"Are you kidding me Harry?"
"Woah Audrey. Hey, hey, hey. It's a compliment."
I felt like screaming.
"It's NOT a compliment.
I threw my arms up, any motion to get rid of the rage pulsing through me.
It's an insult to every single woman on this PLANET. Don't you DARE try and pull that shit on me.
"What shit?!" Harry was stupid enough to ask. "I was saying something nice…"
I shook my head so hard.
"No, you were saying something clichéd and UNTRUE. I AM like other girls, Harry. Don't misinterpret my hatred of romance as some kooky, laid-back, manic pixie NONSENSE. I am DAMAGED. I am not CUTE. I am emotionally-fucking-traumatised right now, okay? I am screaming on the inside. I am too angry and messed up to contain all the stuff girls spend every day containing. That's why I seem different. That is NOT sexy.”
― Holly Bourne, It Only Happens in the Movies

“What was the point? What is the point in love, and promises of it, when it can just jump from one person to another like that?”
― Holly Bourne, It Only Happens in the Movies

“Be you. It's all you can ever be anyway. But own being you. It's a fab thing to own.”
― Holly Bourne, How Hard Can Love Be?

“Trauma. It doesn't eke itself out over time. It doesn't split itself manageably into bite-sized chunks and distribute itself equally throughout your life.
Trauma is all or nothing. A tsunami wave of destruction.
A tornado of unimaginable awfulness that whooshes into your life - just for one key moment - and wreaks such havoc that, in just an instant, your whole world will never be the same again.”
― Holly Bourne, The Manifesto on How to Be Interesting

“I want you to promise me that you'll stop comparing yourself to everyone else.'
'What?' I broke off the hug, not understanding.
'You. Evelyn. You're always like, 'I wish I coulld be like this' or 'I wish I could be more like so-and-so'. You're obsessed with being normal, but that's well boring, and you're extraordinary, Evie. Promise me you'll stop trying to stop stop being you'.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“I smiled back at Ma because smiling is sometimes the only way to stop yourself crying.”
― Holly Bourne, It Only Happens in the Movies

“Trauma is trauma. Your brain and body don't differentiate between physical and emotional abuse. They only respond to attack.”
― Holly Bourne, The Places I've Cried in Public