Sarai Walker > Quotes

“I think it's a response to terrorism. From the time we're little girls, we're taught to fear the bad man who might get us. We're terrified of being raped, abused, even killed by the bad man, but the problem is, you can't tell the good ones from the bad ones, so you have to wary of them all. We're told not to go out by ourselves late at night, not to dress a certain way, not to talk to male strangers, not to lead men on. We take self-defense classes, keep our doors locked, carry pepper spray and rape whistles. The fear of men is ingrained in us from girlhood. Isn't that a form of terrorism?”
― Sarai Walker, Dietland

“We can’t hide it or fake it. We’ll never fit society’s idea for how women should look and behave, but why is that a tragedy? We’re free to live how we want. It’s liberating, if you choose to see it that way.”
― Sarai Walker, Dietland

“There was a phantom woman in my mind that I was comparing myself to, and I had to force her from the dressing room. When she was gone, I looked at my body, the body that had kept me alive for nearly thirty years, without any serious health problems, the body that had taken me where I needed to go and protected me. I had never appreciated or loved the body that had done so much for me. I had thought of it as my enemy, as nothing more than a shell that enclosed my real self, but it wasn’t a shell. The body was me. This is your real life. You’re already living it. I removed the clothes and stood naked before the mirrors, turning this way and that. I was round and cute in a way I’d never seen before.”
― Sarai Walker, Dietland

“That required living in Dietland, which meant control, constriction—paralysis, even—but above all it meant obedience. I was tired of being obedient.”
― Sarai Walker, Dietland

“The weight-loss industry is the most profitable failed industry in history,”
― Sarai Walker, Dietland

“I was wearing bright colors, refusing to apologize for my size. The dress made me feel defiant. For the first time, I didn't mind taking up space.”
― Sarai Walker, Dietland

“I looked at my body, the body that had kept me alive for nearly 30 years, without any serious health problems, the body that had taken me where I needed to go and protected me. I had never appreciated or loved the body that had done so much for me. I had thought of it as my enemy, as nothing more than a shell that enclosed my real self, but it wasn’t a shell. The body was me.”
― Sarai Walker, Dietland

“This is your real life. You're already living it.”
― Sarai Walker, Dietland

“It’s easier to say that women like my mother are crazy. Then you don’t have to listen to them. And so maybe in a way she became crazy. Maybe she could communicate only by screaming.”
― Sarai Walker, The Cherry Robbers

“I’m every American woman’s worst nightmare. It’s what they spend their lives fighting against, it’s why they diet and exercise and have plastic surgery—because they don’t want to look like me.”
― Sarai Walker, Dietland

“People had always insulted me by calling me fat, but they couldn’t hurt me that way, not anymore. I was fat, and if I no longer saw it as a bad thing, then the weapon they had used against me lost its power.”
― Sarai Walker, Dietland

“I want you to consider something, hon. What if it’s not possible for you to ever become thin? What if there is no one day? What if this is your real life right now? What if you’re already living it?”
― Sarai Walker, Dietland

“It’s not easy to live in that body, is it? Not in this culture, with so many shitty, hateful people everywhere. You haven’t had an easy time of it. Anyone who can survive that is strong.”
― Sarai Walker, Dietland

“The truth is a lonely place, but it doesn’t matter. I have a new family now. A better one.”
― Sarai Walker, Dietland

“I knew the relationship she’d had with Daphne was forbidden, but it hadn’t occurred to me that most women like Veronica married eventually. Daphne wouldn’t have, but Veronica, I could see, was different. She was more willing to wear a mask.”
― Sarai Walker, The Cherry Robbers

“The only way I could survive my life was to exist in a fog of denial.”
― Sarai Walker, Dietland

“Because I’m fat, I know how horrible everyone is. If I looked like a normal woman, if I looked like you, then I’d never know how cruel and shallow people are. I see a different side of humanity.”
― Sarai Walker, Dietland

“The police and the “justice” system don’t take violence against women and girls seriously. If you’ve been assaulted or harassed, take the law into your own hands. Form vigilante groups with other girls. Sign up for self-defense classes, but don’t just use the skills defensively. Go on the offensive!”
― Sarai Walker, Dietland

“Most children can’t imagine their mothers having a life before them, but for my sisters and me, it was the opposite. The wedding day was always the end of her story. We were the epilogue.”
― Sarai Walker, The Cherry Robbers

“From the time we’re little girls, we’re taught to fear the bad man who might get us. We’re terrified of being raped, abused, even killed by the bad man, but the problem is, you can’t tell the good ones from the bad ones, so you have to be wary of them all. We’re told not to go out by ourselves late at night, not to dress a certain way, not to talk to male strangers, not to lead men on. We take self-defense classes, keep our doors locked, carry pepper spray and rape whistles. The fear of men is ingrained in us from girlhood. Isn’t that a form of terrorism?”
― Sarai Walker, Dietland

“if you’re going to write a book about the sexual objectification of women, you need to face it. She says too many women look away. They close their eyes,”
― Sarai Walker, Dietland

“That’s what I see too. You carry a great deal of pain around with you, Plum. Can you envision ever letting it go?” “You can’t let go of pain. It’s not a balloon that can float into the sky.” “Okay, but imagine for a minute that it is. You put your pain into a balloon and you let go of it. It floats away. How do you feel?” If I let go of my pain, there would be a hole inside me that was so vast I would cease to exist. I would be the balloon floating into the sky, not the other way around. There would be nothing pulling me down, nothing keeping my feet on the ground. My pain was my gravity. “Without my pain, I wouldn’t be me anymore.” “Pain takes up a lot of space,” Verena said. “You”
― Sarai Walker, Dietland

“An early and important source of inspiration for Dietland was Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk’s novel and the film adaptation directed by David Fincher. I would like to think that Dietland would exist even if Fight Club hadn’t provided that initial spark of an idea, but I’ll never know.”
― Sarai Walker, Dietland

“You’ve got to be kidding,” she said. “I came here to lose a few pounds because of back pain. What kind of sick, self-loathing mindfuck is this?”
― Sarai Walker, Dietland

“In Verena’s house there was never any mention of calories, there was no I shouldn’t eat this, I shouldn’t eat that. Plates were scraped clean, ooohs and ahhhs were abundant, women asked for more. No prayers were offered up to the diet gods: I’ll go to the gym later; I didn’t eat dinner last night. There was pleasure that didn’t have to be bargained for.”
― Sarai Walker, Dietland

“I'm used to crazy bitter women making threats. They complain incessantly that my fashion magazines exploit women. Then on the other hand they complain that the alleged exploitation isn't spread around equally among the fat ones and the ethnic ones. I gave up listening to them years ago.”
― Sarai Walker, Dietland

“When you live in defiance of yourself, you can adapt to your circumstances, but remnants of who you are at your core remain. A bit of wildness that can’t be tamed.”
― Sarai Walker, The Cherry Robbers

“think it’s a response to terrorism. From the time we’re little girls, we’re taught to fear the bad man who might get us. We’re terrified of being raped, abused, even killed by the bad man, but the problem is, you can’t tell the good ones from the bad ones, so you have to be wary of them all. We’re told not to go out by ourselves late at night, not to dress a certain way, not to talk to male strangers, not to lead men on. We take self-defense classes, keep our doors locked, carry pepper spray and rape whistles. The fear of men is ingrained in us from girlhood. Isn’t that a form of terrorism?”
― Sarai Walker, Dietland

“I’m noticing a trend with the lesbian insults,” said Cheryl Crane-Murphy, shaking her head. “If I were a young thug, I would have gone with terrorist, but perhaps lesbian is more abhorrent.”
― Sarai Walker, Dietland

“But I think I’ve finally come to realize that it’s my destiny to be one of the madwomen. One of the women who speaks the truth no matter how terrifying it might be. One of the women who stands apart from the crowd, focusing not on their angry faces and disapproval but looking above them at the sky, which is in a vibrant shade of hyacinth blue that matches the flowers growing in the garden.”
― Sarai Walker, The Cherry Robbers