Jennifer > Jennifer's Quotes

“Was it harder to be a woman? Or an immigrant? Or a Chinese person outside of China? And why did being a good any of the above require you to edit yourself down so you could become someone else?”
― Weike Wang, Joan Is Okay

“I am not pretty. I am not beautiful. I am as radiant as the sun.”
― Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games

“I guess she must have been right; I seemed to fit in. But the thing is, I never felt that I belonged. And now, looking back, I see that the reason was that I was never myself. I was an extreme chameleon. In psychology, we call this self-monitoring, which is the ability to read social situations and fit in no matter what. But when you are always acting to fit in, it is easy to lose your sense of who you are. And really, we don't need to fit in, we just need to find a way to fit together.”
― Stefanie K. Johnson, Inclusify: The Power of Uniqueness and Belonging to Build Innovative Teams

“I’ve never had anyone’s approval, so I’ve learned to live without it.”
― Pat Conroy, The Great Santini

“In the most blunt and pragmatic sense, diversity is optional to many white organizations, because their historical success has not relied on it.”
― Adrian Pei, The Minority Experience: Navigating Emotional and Organizational Realities

“People sometimes have trouble when your face doesn't match your culture. They come to me with ideas of how I should be, what I should eat and like and think. If my grandparents were from France, no one would expect me to go around wearing a beret or come to me for baguette recommendations. I was raised here. Apart from my appearance, there's nothing that connects me to China. It sounds like I hate being Chinese. I don't. I love being who I am. I only wish other people could accept me for me and not make up a person based on my appearance.”
― Lily Chu, The Comeback

“It remains a damning fact of life that we ask too much of those who are marginalized and too little of those who are not.”
― Michelle Obama, The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times

“(Let’s face it, if men had to give birth, there would probably be only a total of about 47 people living on the face of the earth today as opposed to billions, and abortion clinics would be just another department in Walmart alongside auto parts, golf gear, and firearms.)”
― Stanley Tucci, Taste: My Life Through Food

“Real success in the kingdom of God is not about being strong and looking good and knowing all the right answers. It's about continually yielding oneself to Jesus and determining to take purposeful little steps of obedience, and the ragged reality that it's all about God and His grace at work in us.”
― Mary Beth Chapman, Choosing to SEE: A Journey of Struggle and Hope

“I didn’t know regular life could feel like this, like a vacation you don’t have to go home from.”
― Emily Henry, People We Meet on Vacation

“You get to live a new life on the foundation of the cross. You do not get what you deserve. You get grace instead. Grace is terribly, beautifully unfair, and it's yours for the taking.”
― Alli Patterson, How to Stay Standing

“If you have no intention of loving or being loved, the whole journey is pointless.”
― Kate DiCamillo

“The only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read. Not by any other person, and not even by yourself at some later date. Otherwise you begin excusing yourself. You must see the writing as emerging like a long scroll of ink from the index finger of your right hand; you must see your left hand erasing it.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

“When I look at my friend's marriages, with their routine day-to-dayness, they actually seem far more romantic than any dating relationship might be. Dating seems romantic, but for the most part it's an extended audition. Marriage seems boring, but for the most part it's a state of comfort and acceptance. Dating is about grand romantic gestures that mean little over the long-term. Marriage is about small acts of kindness that bond you over a lifetime. It's quietly romantic. He makes her tea. She goes to the doctor appointment with him. They listen to each other's daily trivia. They put up with each other's quirks. They're there for each other.”
― Lori Gottlieb, Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough

“Despite his money and his looks and all the good-on-paper attributes he possessed, he was not a reader, and, well, let's just say that is the sort of nonsense up with which we will not put.”
― Eleanor Brown, The Weird Sisters

“I wasn't mean; I wasn't evil. I was nice. And let me tell you, a hesitant man is the last thing in the world a woman needs. She needs a lover and a warrior, not a Really Nice Guy.”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“Men don't need linguistic talent; they just need courage and words.”
― Helen Fisher, Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love

“It was a blessing and also a curse of handwritten letters that unlike email you couldn’t obsessively reread what you’d written after you’d sent it. You couldn’t attempt to un-send it. Once you’d sent it it was gone. It was an object that no longer belonged to you but belonged to your recipient to do with what he would. You tended to remember the feeling of what you’d said more than the words. You gave to object away and left yourself with the memory. That was what it was to give.”
― Ann Brashares, Sisterhood Everlasting

“A handwritten letter carries a lot of risk. It's a one-sided conversation that reveals the truth of the writer. Furthermore, the writer is not there to see the reaction of the person he writes to, so there's a great unknown to the process that requires a leap of faith. The writer has to choose the right words to express his sentences, and then, once he has sealed the envelope, he has to place those thoughts in the hands of someone else, trusting that the feelings will be delivered, and that the recipient will understand the writer's intent. How childish to think that could be easy.”
― Adriana Trigiani, Brava, Valentine

“If the difference between guys and men is still unclear, here are a few examples that apply to dating:

A guy uses women to build his self-esteem. A man already has it.
A guy likes to "hang out" with a woman he's interested in. A man asks her out.
A guy doesn't make a move until he's sure there's no risk. A man is bold and clear with his intentions.
A guy plays games with a woman. A man has no time for games because they keep him from getting to know the woman.
A guy will become bitter and angry with a woman when she denies him. A man accepts that dating involves risk.
A guy fears and worships women. A man respects and adores them but fears and worships only God.
Guys are cool and indifferent. Men are hot and passionate.”
― Stephen W. Simpson, What Women Wish You Knew about Dating: A Single Guy'S Guide To Romantic Relationships

“In the pit of her stomach she realized that everything she raged against on Saturday night-- the restrictions, rules, and guidelines-- was born of an ancient fervor. Every rule ever established, from the beginning of time, invited mutiny.”
― Robin Jones Gunn, Peculiar Treasures

“Chance is perhaps the pseudonym of God when he does not want to sign.”
― Théophile Gautier

“I guess I always felt even if the world came to an end, McDonald's would still be open.”
― Susan Pfeffer, Life As We Knew It

“Suddenly, he wanted some credit for it. He wanted someone to thank him for not crapping on the institution of love. He wanted someone to thank him for not being yet another dilettante. He wanted someone to thank him for quitting poetry. He wanted some great poet to thank him for quitting poetry instead of desecrating it with his amateurishness. He wanted some unborn child to thank him for not conceiving her and not leaving her a hope chest full of mawkish villanelles. He wanted some sort of organization of martyrs to give him an award. He wanted to be decorated for not putting up a fuss. He wanted to be the president of forgettable people. He wanted there to be a competition for the least competitive person, and he wanted to win that competition. He wanted some sort of badge or outfit or medal or key or hat. He wanted to be asked to stand. He wanted to be considered. He wanted to be considered in earnest before being ignored. He wanted all the insane and beautiful and passionate people in the world to take one moment of silence in gratitude for the ones who had ceded them the stage-- he, the unread poet, the sacrifice, the schoolteacher-- he wanted one goddamned moment of appreciation.”
― Amity Gaige, The Folded World

“A professionally trained actress should be a better liar, wouldn't you think? But no. I am pathetically underachieved in that area. I can think of a great lie. I'm plenty imaginative. But before the words are even out of my mouth, there's a weird tickle of unease in my armpits, a horsefly of guilt lands on the back of my neck, and before I can stop myself, that gassy little bubble of truth belches out.”
― Kristin Chenoweth, A Little Bit Wicked: Life, Love, and Faith in Stages

“A mother's heart is a vast and glorious thing. My mother's heart was expansive, having been enlarged by suffering and years of clinging to Jesus while being misunderstood, dismissed, and judged by those she loved most. Me included. It had cost her to love, had cost her much to mother. It always does. But she would tell you that it's worth it, that there is no other way.”
― John and Stasi Eldredge, Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul

“Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones

“I think that the only real way to tell if a boy like likes you is to be direct. None of this game-playing, that's juvenile. Instead, even though it might be scary, the thing to do is to just march up and ask one of your friends to ask someone else to ask one of his friends what he thinks about you.”
― Lisa Yee, So Totally Emily Ebers

“Of all the weapons she had commanded, Elizabeth knew the least of love; and of all the weapons in the world, love was the most dangerous.”
― Seth Grahame-Smith, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

“Thanks to my mother, I was raised to have a morbid imagination. When I was a child, she often talked about death as warning, as an unavoidable matter of fact. Little Debbie's mom down the block might say, 'Honey, look both ways before crossing the street.' My mother's version: 'You don't look, you get smash flat like sand dab.' (Sand dabs were the cheap fish we bought live in the market, distinguished in my mind by their two eyes affixed on one side of their woebegone cartoon faces.)

The warnings grew worse, depending on the danger at hand. Sex education, for example, consisted of the following advice: 'Don't ever let boy kiss you. You do, you can't stop. Then you have baby. You put baby in garbage can. Police find you, put you in jail, then you life over, better just kill youself.”
― Amy Tan, The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life