The Book of Essie Quotes

“It's men who trust they will suffer no consequences for their actions, while women suffer no matter what they do.”
― Meghan MacLean Weir, The Book of Essie

“On the day I turn seventeen, there is a meeting to decide whether I should have the baby or if sneaking me to a clinic for an abortion is worth the PR risk. I am not invited, which is just as well, since my being there might imply that I have some choice in the matter and I know that I have none.”
― Meghan MacLean Weir, The Book of Essie

“I realize that whatever it is that is between them, even if it's not love, it is just as real.”
― Meghan MacLean Weir, The Book of Essie

“People are funny that way. They remember only what they want to and manage to forget the rest.”
― Meghan MacLean Weir, The Book of Essie

“I doubt very much that the lengths of wood we nail together into a frame could be considered up to code, but we do the best we can. I suspect they will take it all apart and start over as soon as we are gone, but it looks good on camera since Jesus was a carpenter. Daddy would say that segments like this lend an air of humility to the show, but he says it while wearing a three-hundred-dollar tie, so I'm not entirely sure he knows what the word humility really means.”
― Meghan MacLean Weir, The Book of Essie

“No one said this out loud, though. Instead his girlfriend stood between the dead guy's parents and cried as if she really was heartbroken. And maybe she was. Who knows? People are funny that way. They remember only what they want to and manage to forget the rest.”
― Meghan MacLean Weir, The Book of Essie

“She's a virus. Her entire family is. They've infected the country with a special brand of intolerance that masquerades as religion.”
― Meghan MacLean Weir, The Book of Essie

“I certainly shouldn’t be giving advice, but if I were asked, I guess I would say that the key to any relationship is a shared vision for where you both want to be. No frills. No fuss. Just a road map for you both to follow so no one gets lost along the way.”
― Meghan MacLean Weir, The Book of Essie

“I guess there’s something to be said for holding on to the things that matter, even if shinier objects might come your way.”
― Meghan MacLean Weir, The Book of Essie

“But everyone, to some degree or another, if they are being completely honest with themselves, is selfish way down deep.”
― Meghan MacLean Weir, The Book of Essie

“The best lie, Candy always says, is the one that is ninety-nine percent truth. It's easier to sell.”
― Meghan MacLean Weir, The Book of Essie

“Love takes time. It takes energy.”
― Meghan MacLean Weir, The Book of Essie

“Still, they are fond of each other and maybe that is enough. Maybe that is the sort of affection that should serve as the basis of a lifetime commitment. Maybe everyone else has been doing it wrong, expecting too much only to be disappointed. ...I guess I would say the key to any relationship is a shared vision of where you both want to be. No frills. No fuss. Just a road map for you both to follow so no one gets lost along the way.”
― Meghan MacLean Weir, The Book of Essie

“People are funny that way. They remember only what they want to and manage to forget the rest.”
― Meghan MacLean Weir, The Book of Essie

“I'd be sold not into slavery but into celebrity, which I realize on some level amounts to pretty much the same thing.”
― Meghan MacLean Weir, The Book of Essie

“Unlike Elizabeth, Carter Banks has a fairly typical online presence, which is to say that within minutes I know far more about him than I ever knew about my best friend growing up.”
― Meghan MacLean Weir, The Book of Essie

“Sweet as sugar but hard enough to break a tooth on.”
― Meghan MacLean Weir, The Book of Essie

“I know she thinks she's thought it through, but she hasn't. I need to make her see that. It's like when you knock over the first domino. Once it topples, you lose control of everything that comes after. There's no way to stop the rest of them from falling down.”
― Meghan MacLean Weir, The Book of Essie

“There will be a crash, certainly, but before that... well, there's that moment when you feel like you can fly.”
― Meghan MacLean Weir, The Book of Essie

“When we enter the library, a stern-looking woman holding court from behind the circulation desk purses her lips with obvious displeasure as we approach. Amazingly she holds this expression without moving even a single muscle while I explain that we would like to learn more about the library’s namesake, Livingston James. At this she sighs, as if it is all too much for her, and I get the sense that she is less offended by having to walk us to the back reading room than she is by the notion that there are still people in this world for whom Livingston James is not a household name.”
― Meghan MacLean Weir, The Book of Essie

“the key to any relationship is a shared vision for where you both want to be. No frills. No fuss. Just a road map for you both to follow so no one gets lost along the way.”
― Meghan MacLean Weir, The Book of Essie

“It’s men who trust they will suffer no consequences for their actions, while women suffer no matter what they do.”
― Meghan MacLean Weir, The Book of Essie

“An abortion is not anything I have ever wanted, but then again, I never wanted any of this, and for the first time, I consider how it could erase what has happened and maybe even turn back time. As I feel the last of the heat leave the dryer beneath me, I allow myself to hope that there is some part of my mother that cares about my future above her own. That I will at least be offered the choice. But Gretchen is already talking again, and I know that despite what Mother says, she will not really consider it. Not because she is so staunchly pro-life, a position that I now realize is just another carefully crafted aspect of her public persona, but because her empire would come crashing down if we were ever caught.”
― Meghan MacLean Weir, The Book of Essie

“Our family rejected materialism and popular culture and yet we also produced it. The show, which by then had been called many things but was currently airing with the title Six for Hicks, paid for the SUVs Mother and Daddy drove, the lake house, the “spiritual retreat” that was actually a villa in Saint John. It paid for the car seat I rode home in from the hospital, the muslin blankets I was swaddled in when I slept. It paid for my first backpack when it came time for me to go to school, Mother having by then completely abandoned giving lessons in the living room, not just because her time and energy were better spent promoting our brand but also because marketing said that what our audience wanted at that point was a character who was “normal.”
― Meghan MacLean Weir, The Book of Essie