Sophie, Standing There Quotes

“When a man writes about a crumbling marriage and the existential dread of domestic life, it is hailed as a 'searing psychological dissection of the modern condition.' When a woman writes the exact same book, they put a pastel floral arrangement on the cover, label it 'commercial women's fiction,' and price it two dollars cheaper.”
― Meg Mason, Sophie, Standing There

“She read on and it hurt in the exact way Sophie needed it to. The precision of the author's words, the beauty and rhythm of her sentences existing here in a list, describing the chaos and rage, the tragedy and shock and mess of Sophie's life for her.”
― Meg Mason, Sophie, Standing There

“So you’ve finished the Booker long-list?”
“I did”
“Did you enjoy any of them?”
― Meg Mason, Sophie, Standing There

“I’ve never met anyone who tried so hard to be happy by being kind.”
― Meg Mason, Sophie, Standing There: A Reese’s Book Club Pick

“All I wanted, to be mistress of my own thought life. It was like – Sophie wished she had words for the feeling it gave her. Like a leadenness, from her very centre, a pulling towards something. Her own longing, her untold pain. Her deepest need, to bolt the doors of my own mind against his perpetual invasion,”
― Meg Mason, Sophie, Standing There: A Reese’s Book Club Pick

“it was like, you could be sad in a bookshop, but you were never happier than when you were in a bookshop.”
― Meg Mason, Sophie, Standing There: A Reese’s Book Club Pick

“Grief is love with nowhere to go,’ the author said. ‘Why would you try to get over it?”
― Meg Mason, Sophie, Standing There: A Reese’s Book Club Pick

“Deep down, Sophie wasn’t moved by fame or, in honest truth, intimidated by the people who were famous in her world. No question, they were intrinsically better but, over time, fame made them worse.”
― Meg Mason, Sophie, Standing There: A Reese’s Book Club Pick

“The festival board doesn't actually want to change the demographic makeup of its headliners; they want to fund a three-year committee report about changing the demographic makeup of its headliners. It allows them to print the word 'Inclusivity' in a silver foil font on the festival program without ever risking the comfort of their core demographic.”
― Meg Mason, Sophie, Standing There

“The predatory male genius is no longer allowed to chase assistants around the desk, so instead, he sits on grant committees and quietly ensures his male protégés receive the fellowships, while dismissing the women as 'highly competent but lacking a certain raw, disruptive energy.”
― Meg Mason, Sophie, Standing There

“Publishing houses love diversity, provided it comes packaged as a tragedy. They don’t want to read a brilliant, high-concept sci-fi epic by a Black author. They want that author to write a harrowing memoir about their ancestral trauma, because a middle-class white audience loves nothing more than crying over someone else's suffering while feeling deeply enlightened for buying the paperback.”
― Meg Mason, Sophie, Standing There

“The modern literary panel is a masterpiece of corporate optics. They will seat three minority debut novelists next to a middle-aged white man who writes biographies of Winston Churchill. The minorities are there to provide the 'vital perspective,' but the Churchill man is the only one they actually pay a meaningful appearance fee.”
― Meg Mason, Sophie, Standing There

“The modern novel is just a memoir where the author changed her name from Sarah to Clara so she doesn't get sued by her ex-husband at the book launch.”
― Meg Mason, Sophie, Standing There

“A twenty-three-year-old debut novelist hasn't lived long enough to write a tragedy. Their idea of profound grief is their favorite oat milk brand being discontinued at the local cafe.”
― Meg Mason, Sophie, Standing There

“A reader doesn’t just read you; they consume you. They take the raw, bleeding pieces you nearly killed yourself to write, digest them to soothe their own small aches, and then demand to know what you’re serving for dessert.”
― Meg Mason, Sophie, Standing There

“There is no one more terrifying than an author who describes herself as 'a champion of women’s fiction' in her Twitter bio. In private, she will review your book under a pseudonym and give it one star because a sentence reminded her of her mother-in-law.”
― Meg Mason, Sophie, Standing There