Young Jane Young Quotes

“Can I ask you something?" you said. "How did you ever survive that scandal?"

She said, "I refused to be shamed."

"How did you do that?" you asked.

"When they came at me, I kept coming," she said.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“I am the proud owner of several complexes. But who isn’t? When you think about it, isn’t a person just a structure built in reaction to the landscape and the weather?”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“Why are you so quiet?” he asks. Because, you want to say, I am a person with an interior world that you know nothing about.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“...the things we don't have are sadder than the things we have. Because the things we don't have exist in our imaginations, where they are perfect.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“They didn’t put a scarlet letter on her chest, but they didn’t need to. That’s what the Internet is for.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“Anticipating the worst doesn’t provide insurance from the worst happening,” Mimmy says.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“True conviction is believing something to be right even after it becomes disadvantageous to you.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“The rub of the Choose Your Own Adventure stories is that if you don’t make a few bad choices, the story will be terribly boring. If you do everything right and you’re always good, the story will be very short.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“My grandmother was married for fifty-two years, until my grandfather died. She used to say that a bad marriage was one that hadn’t had enough time to get good again.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“You are not a beautiful girl, and even if you were, you know that is not related to how much sex a person has. Plenty of ugly people have sex. Plenty of ordinary people have sex. Plenty of beautiful people spend their nights alone.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“The key to happiness in life is knowing when to keep your mouth shut.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“You call your mother. You’re in a panic, but as soon as your mother answers the phone, you relax. When your mother is worrying about something, it means that you won’t have to.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“Because the things we don’t have are sadder than the things we have. Because the things we don’t have exist in our imaginations, where they are perfect.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“You love being Ruby’s mother, but loving Ruby does not stop you from wanting things for yourself.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“When you think about it, isn't a person just a structure built in reaction to the landscape and the weather?”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“My point is, it’s tempting,” she said. “It is certainly tempting to continue on with something because it has already begun.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“Anticipating the worst doesn't provide insurance from the worst happening”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“When you think of your mother, the word that occurs to you is too. She hugs you too hard, kisses you too long, asks you too many questions, worries too much about your weight/your love life/your friendships/your future/your water consumption. She loves you with an almost religious fervor. She loves you too much. The love makes you feel embarrassed for her and almost guilty—other than be born, what have you done to deserve such love?”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“We had been there about four days when she said, “It feels like last year was a dream,” she said. “It feels like I had a fever, and the fever has finally broken.” “I’m glad,” I said. “Still,” she said, “sometimes I miss the fever.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“An “online presence” is “all the true things and all the lies about a person on the Internet.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“If you’re honest with yourself, one of the reasons you moved into an off-campus apartment and didn’t get any roommates is because you hoped something like this would happen. You set the stage, and you knew the player wouldn’t be able to resist the call of the theater.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“What suit jacket would say “supportive,” “feminist,” “unbroken,” “optimistic”? What one effing suit jacket could possibly accomplish that?”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“I felt guilty, but lighter. I had turned my problem into someone else’s.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“The second man I meet is Andrew, and he has dirty fingernails so I can't notice if he is nice or not. I can even eat my brown sugar and butter crêpes because, oy gevalt, I'm so distracted by these fingernails. I mean, what was he doing before he came on this date? Competitive gardening? Burying the last woman he dated?”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“A man puts on a suit and a tie and an American flag pin, and that’s the end of the story. He is a politician. A female politician’s appearance is always a disputed territory, a matter of discussion.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“saw a show where a convicted murderer did law school by correspondence so that he could try to get himself acquitted.” “I’m not a murderer,” she said. “I’m a slut, and you can’t be acquitted of that.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“To take care of something is to love it.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“When you have little, mine Aviva, you learn to take care. When you have much, you must accept that you could someday have little,” she would say. “To take care of something is to love it.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“What is feminism from my point of view as a woman and as a human being?” Who fucking cares? you thought. “It’s the right every woman has to make her own choices. People don’t have to like your choices, Aviva, but you have a right to make them. Embeth Levin has a right to make them, too. Don’t expect a parade.” You”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young

“She used to say that a bad marriage was one that hadn’t had enough time to get good again.”
― Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young