She's Too Pretty to Burn Quotes

“Why are you apologizing when you didn’t do anything wrong? That’s something we teach girls to do—always apologize, never be a burden. You have a right to take up space.”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“I’m so glad I didn’t melt you down with steel and turn you into a lifeless, shining doll. What a waste that would have been. You’re too pretty to burn.”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“This is what he does. He paints you into a picture. He turns you into a puppet.”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“You wouldn’t have anything to be scared of if you didn’t commit felony fucking arson.”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“She was so many layers. One layer was sweet and shy. The next layer was dark and unpredictable. Under that, a layer of fierce dominance. She was the ocean, with its riptides and its soft, clean breeze and its beauty and its chilling, shark-filled depths." -Veronica”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“I want to escape, but it's me that's the problem. There's nowhere to go that I won't also be.”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“This couldn’t be good. The layers of lies and secrets were piling up fast now, like dirt being shoveled into a grave.”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“You’re seventeen, not twelve. You’re old enough to drive and have sex, and next year you’re allowed to murder people in the military. I think you can handle a little bit of sour grape juice.”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“I feel that way a lot, like I could scream and no one would hear a thing.”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“You’re not even really an artist. Everything you want is safe and boring. You want to fall in love, you want a successful career. You have a picket-fence life, and that’s all you want.”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“You were standing there watching. And then you took the torch from him. You set that fire. He didn’t make you. He didn’t even ask you. You’re not this innocent girl. You chose him over me the night of the fire, and again the night of the gala.”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“Growing up in Southern California, you hear about wildfires constantly. Whenever people hear that someone started one on purpose, they look at each other in horror and disgust. What kind of person could do such a thing? What kind of monster would intentionally destroy all those animals’ habitats, all that nature?”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“That photo Veronica took of me feels like a leaked nude—I’d never show that side of myself to total strangers, but now it’s out there for anyone to see. Next up, the Inner You shoot—actual nudes. Why not, right? Soon there will be nothing left of me that hasn’t been consumed by strangers on the internet.”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“It was like having the camera suddenly turned on me. I couldn’t think of a single thing about myself, not with her freaking ab muscles visible through her freaking shirt.”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“feel hatred for my own mother. My eyes prick with tears, and I stare out at the dark suburbs, blinking hard until they clear.”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“hate it when she says things like this. How is my own private human body a waste?”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“If you want people to see the failings of a system, you have to attack the machine.”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“The photo already had its hooks in me.”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“Everyone persecutes Mick, right? She’s always in fights with people, but it’s never her fault? Those kinds of people are toxic, Veronica. I know you’re young and you want to save everyone, and I’m sure that’s coming from your issues with your father leaving, and I don’t want to be judgmental, but honey.”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“My mom doesn’t want me. Veronica’s face was full of disgust and disappointment when she closed the locker room door behind her. My swim team friends think I’m some kind of … I can’t let myself remember their faces. The shame it brings is too sharp; it cuts me up on the inside.”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“You took a dead girl’s purse?” My voice rose an octave. “Are you insane? Do you have any idea what that will look like to the cops?” “I got rid of it! I couldn’t let them find evidence!” “Nico,” I breathed. “Holy shit. You have dug yourself a hole.” “I know.”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“Those questions made me angry. It felt like something they planned to sensationalize so gross old dudes could get off on the idea of pretty teenage girls having sex with each other.”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“What if the fire spreads to the state park? It’s enough to just surround the tent with trees. You made your point!”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“had heard his lectures about the gatekeepers of art and culture approximately four thousand times. I was pretty sure he was just bitter after being rejected by the one art school he deigned to apply to.”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“You know how I feel,” she snapped, unguarded at last. “It feels like shit. I feel like everyone on the internet is seeing me naked. And now I have to go to this gala so people can look at my pictures and look at me in person and ask me, what—what kind of questions?” Her voice had become high and panicky, and she broke off and looked out at the ocean. “I wish I could disappear,” she said quietly.”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“I couldn’t imagine having a mom who would physically kick me out of the house. What would I do if I were in her situation? I was trying to show her that I was there for her in every possible way without being overly clingy, and I was also trying to figure out when to tell her about PostMod magazine and the gala.”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“Why would you tag it like that if you didn’t want a bunch of people to see it?”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“What kind of mother tried to strong-arm her teenage daughter into getting half naked for some stupid interior design ad?”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“I was wearing a fifties-style black bikini with high-waisted bottoms and enough strap action to control my boobs, which always wanted to flop around attracting unwelcome male attention, especially from gross older men who took one look at me and decided I was up for grabs.”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn

“Everything you’re saying is the worst thing I have ever heard,” I told him. “Like, I’m on the verge of stealing your DNA and sending it to the FBI. What the fuck is actually wrong with you?”
― Wendy Heard, She's Too Pretty to Burn