Asking for It Quotes

“I’ve come to realize that speaking the truth can be a form of love. Maybe listening can be too.”
― Lilah Pace, Asking for It

“Sometimes life is like a video game. When things get harder, and the obstacles get tougher, it just means you leveled up.”
― Lilah Pace, Asking for It

“How did this man with the power to terrify me also become the one person who truly makes me feel safe?”
― Lilah Pace, Asking for It

“It’s your secret. A piece of your life that’s yours to share or not to share, as you see fit. You never have to tell a soul if you don’t want to.”
― Lilah Pace, Asking for It

“It’s so hard to believe that someone might want me—all of me—fucked-up sexual desire, tangled family history, book-hoarding tendencies, everything.”
― Lilah Pace, Asking for It

“Still, one of the great truths of life is that any situation can be improved with coffee.”
― Lilah Pace, Asking for It

“Sometimes what looks like generosity can be control.You think you’re being swept up in this big romance, but really it’s all about separating you from your own life.”
― Lilah Pace, Asking for It

“If it were no big deal, you wouldn’t be standing out here now,” he says. “I knew the truth as soon as I saw your face. You want that fantasy. You want it more than you’ve ever wanted anything else.” He looks directly at me for the first time. “You hate it, don’t you? The fantasy. I do too. But it doesn’t change anything.”
― Lilah Pace, Asking for It

“I meant—the world breaks so many of us. Maybe all of us, in the end. But everyone starts out like this. Untouched, happy. Perfect. And we put all our hopes on children, all the hopes we can’t believe in for ourselves any longer.”
― Lilah Pace, Asking for It

“When will that be? After all your secrets are told. So, never. My illusions have been overshadowed by harsh, cold fact.”
― Lilah Pace, Asking for It

“They have no idea how deep this goes for me. To them it’s a tremor, not an earthquake.”
― Lilah Pace, Asking for It

“Jonah’s the only man who ever made my entire mind splinter like this. Because I can’t speak. I can’t think. I don’t know what to feel. All I know is that he’s pumping me hard now, so deep inside me that it seems like—like there’s nothing left of me except my body, and my body is completely his—even the arousal arcing inside me, more and more powerful, that belongs to him too—”
― Lilah Pace, Asking for It

“A macchiato can only solve your problems if you let it, sweetie.”
― Lilah Pace, Asking for It

“Sometimes “Southern hospitality” is just another term for hypocrisy.”
― Lilah Pace, Asking for It

“The fantasy comes from that, and from a culture that eroticizes violence against women, and leftover puritanical guilt about sex that tells us we’re not allowed to choose it and want it for ourselves, and from God only knows where else.”
― Lilah Pace, Asking for It

“The September night is as sultry as July, and the sound of cicadas shimmers louder, softer, then louder again. It’s the sound of heat itself, of summer bearing down on you without mercy.”
― Lilah Pace, Asking for It

“Always, I believed that if I ever acted out my rape fantasy the way I wanted, this would be the moment where I started to regret it. My pride would return. I wouldn’t be able to believe I’d abased myself like this, that I’d let a man treat me like a possession he owned. No matter how good the sex had or hadn’t been, I thought, afterward I’d be so ashamed it wouldn’t be worth it.”
― Lilah Pace, Asking for It

“I don’t want to want that. My fantasy is something I’m trying to escape from, not sink down into. If I try this and hate it, that would be beyond horrible. It might be as traumatic as a real rape, and I would have walked right into it. That’s not what scares me, though. What scares me is that I’ll try it and love it. Maybe I really am that fucked up.”
― Lilah Pace, Asking for It

“Once again that mixture of fear and desire surges through my veins, the same kind of fire I imagine injected heroin must feel like—an agony so sweet you’d do anything for it.”
― Lilah Pace, Asking for It

“It’s your fantasy, and mine. Chances like this don’t come along often – two people twisted in the exact same way.”
― Lilah Pace, Asking for It

“What we have cuts too deep. Matters too much. Jonah and I will find our way back to each other, or we'll drift apart forever. We won't wind up with anything in between.”
― Lilah Pace, Asking for It

“Pay attention to the secrets you keep. You don't have to share everything with everyone - but sometimes the very things you hide are the things you least need to keep inside.”
― Lilah Pace, Asking for It

“I wouldn’t say this if I didn’t love you.” Only as the words come out of my mouth does it hit me that the truth can be a gift of love. That no other gift can possibly compare.”
― Lilah Pace, Asking for It

“Some artists believe in creating every single day—writing, painting, doing whatever it is you do—to stay productive. Others believe in a concept called “filling the well.” This means stopping for a while to just take in something new, whether it’s a book you’ve never read, an activity you’ve never tried, or a place you’ve never been before. The new experiences sink deep into your consciousness and take your creativity in new directions.
If I didn’t already believe in filling the well, the stark, wild beauty of this place would convince me.”
― Lilah Pace, Asking for It

“Despite all our rules and resolutions, I have begun to have feelings for Jonah. To feel jealous of other women he might touch. To want to have not just his body but his heart. That means I want too much. Which in turn means I have to get out, now.”
― Lilah Pace, Asking for It

“But what if he thought he wasn’t forcing me? He knows I fantasize about rape. He said he wants to give me my fantasy. Would Jonah break in, thinking I was waiting for him? We talked about acting everything out. Breaking in could be part of that. I want to think he wouldn’t take it this far—but with something like this, the lines between fantasy and reality could get blurred much too easily. If I protested, even if I fought, Jonah might believe that was only part of the game.”
― Lilah Pace, Asking for It