The Breakaway Quotes

“I’m telling myself, she may not want me here right now. But, someday, she’ll remember that I showed up for her. She’ll know that I tried.” Eileen took another sip. “I think that’s half of parenting, especially when they’re older. You just keep showing up.”
― Jennifer Weiner, The Breakaway

“She had done a lot of reading, and listened to a lot of podcasts about body positivity and health at every size, and how diet culture and Western beauty standards contributed to, and were fed by, capitalism and racism and misogyny in an endless loop that left women hungry and unhappy with empty bellies and depleted bank accounts, starving and tractable, too weak to change the world, or the way they had to move through it.”
― Jennifer Weiner, The Breakaway

“If Eileen had been a force for evil in her life—or at least a force for denial and self-loathing—Lizzie had been a force for good, a living example that it was possible to move through the world in a larger body without hating yourself.”
― Jennifer Weiner, The Breakaway

“Life hurts. It’s full of heartache, loss, and disappointment, and even the best things come salted with sorrow. But you can’t leave yourself open to the good things—happiness, true love, real connection—if you aren’t willing to risk being hurt.”
― Jennifer Weiner, The Breakaway

“Eileen wanted her daughter to shrink herself to fit into the space the world allotted, instead of fighting to change the systems and institutions that wanted women to keep themselves small. She treated Abby like a problem in need of solving instead of asking, even once, whether it was the world, not her daughter, that might have been wrong.”
― Jennifer Weiner, The Breakaway

“If it works, if you find your person, everything you suffer is worth it.”
― Jennifer Weiner, The Breakaway

“They weren’t the horrible snobs that she’d imagined. They were partners, Abby saw. They would sacrifice for each other; help each other through the hard times. She wanted that for herself. But when did sacrifice become self-abnegation? When were you giving up too much? Would she end up resenting Mark if she stayed with him and none of their vacations involved bikes, even though cycling was what she loved best? Sebastian could ride with her. But was he prepared for a relationship? Would he even be capable of fidelity?”
― Jennifer Weiner, The Breakaway

“You know that quote, right? ‘Everyone complains about the weather, and nobody does anything about it?’ ”
― Jennifer Weiner, The Breakaway

“Half of her brain was insisting, in a voice that sounded a lot like her mother’s voice, Mark is perfect, Mark is great, and you’d be an idiot to break up with him, because, let’s be real, there’s probably not another Jewish doctor out there, or Jewish man out there, or man, full stop, out there, who’d want to be with you. The other half was thinking about Lizzie. Specifically, Lizzie’s house, and how it felt like an extension of its owner, a place that embraced visitors and made them feel as welcome as Lizzie herself did. Could she ever have a home like that with Mark? With any man? Or were places like the one Lizzie had made for herself, lives like the one Lizzie had built, big, free lives, only available to women like Lizzie; single women without children?”
― Jennifer Weiner, The Breakaway

“think occasionally lonely is better than being stuck with the wrong person forever.”
― Jennifer Weiner, The Breakaway

“Morgan’s”
― Jennifer Weiner, The Breakaway

“where she didn’t even think about Mark, or her life with him, at all, or how, when she did”
― Jennifer Weiner, The Breakaway

“Do you understand?” Lincoln asked him. “If you’re in a relationship with someone, if you let yourself be vulnerable, you can get hurt.” “I know.” Lincoln’s expression was dubious. But Sebastian did understand. He got it. If he was with Abby, if he let himself love her, and if, somehow, she loved him, she would have his heart in her hands, every day. He would be giving her power to wound him, to hurt him, to make him not want to live. To leach all the color from the world; to steal all the savor from food; to turn minutes to hours and hours to days and the rest of his life into a painfully slow slog to its inevitable end. He shook his head in confusion… and admiration. How had Lincoln done it? How did anyone? “It’s scary,” he finally said. “But worth it,” said Lincoln. “If it works, if you find your person, everything you suffer is worth it.”
― Jennifer Weiner, The Breakaway

“I think that’s half of parenting, especially when they’re older. You just keep showing up.”
― Jennifer Weiner, The Breakaway

“Well, isn’t that what everyone wants? To be with someone who loves them and understands them, and isn’t trying to change them?”
― Jennifer Weiner, The Breakaway

“Hating yourself took a toll: on your finances, your self-esteem, your time.”
― Jennifer Weiner, The Breakaway

“Eileen wanted her daughter to shrink herself to fit into the space the world allotted, instead of fighting to change the systems and institutions that wanted women to keep themselves small.”
― Jennifer Weiner, The Breakaway

“Can we not do the fat-girl self-deprecating shtick?”
― Jennifer Weiner, The Breakaway

“How it had felt to be so desired by someone who was, himself, so desirable.”
― Jennifer Weiner, The Breakaway

“Falls into a pile of shit, comes out smelling like roses.”
― Jennifer Weiner, The Breakaway

“If it had been any other old acquaintance, Abby would have anchored Saturday’s tour with her favorite places to eat. There would have been brunch at Sabrina’s, then some walking, and people-watching. There might have been a trip to the Barnes or the Philadelphia Museum of Art, followed by hummus and fresh pita at Dizengoff or tahini milkshakes at Goldie, then a stroll east to Spruce Street Harbor Park for fried chicken sandwiches at Federal Donuts, ice cream from Franklin Fountain, and drinks at Oasis…”
― Jennifer Weiner, The Breakaway

“Hourglass, Apple, and Pyramid,” Abby repeated. “What about the boys?” Marissa and Leah looked at each other. “I don’t know,” Leah finally said. “I think they’re just boys.”
― Jennifer Weiner, The Breakaway

“Specifically, Lizzie’s house, and how it felt like an extension of its owner, a place that embraced visitors and made them feel as welcome as Lizzie herself did. Could she ever have a home like that with Mark? With any man? Or were places like the one Lizzie had made for herself, lives like the one Lizzie had built, big, free lives, only available to women like Lizzie; single women without children?”
― Jennifer Weiner, The Breakaway

“few”
― Jennifer Weiner, The Breakaway

“And,” Eileen continued, “it turns out that Ted is married to Lou, and Ed is married to Sue.” Abby felt her eyes get wide. “Wait, what?” “They swap,” Eileen said, with a smug-looking smile. “On the bike trips. They told us all at brunch, before we went back. They say it keeps things fresh and exciting.” “Oh my God,” said Abby. “So they’re swingers? A foursome?” “A polycule,” said Eileen, pronouncing a word she most likely hadn’t known before the trip.”
― Jennifer Weiner, The Breakaway

“But I just wanted what every mother wants. I wanted you to be happy. I wanted you to have choices.”
― Jennifer Weiner, The Breakaway

“I think that's half of parenting, especially when they're older. You just keep showing up.”
― Jennifer Weiner, The Breakaway

“Ashamed of herself for being mean, which, as someone who'd absorbed a fair share of the world's unkindness, she tried never, ever to be.”
― Jennifer Weiner, The Breakaway