Pretty as a Picture Quotes

“Men make horror films about fantastic creatures and outlandish villains and beautiful victims. Women make horror films about what happens when the wrong guy gets into your car. You ever wonder why that is?” Another flick of his fingers. “That’s a grotesque mischaracterization.” I silently agreed with him. Sometimes women also make horror films about what happens when the wrong guy gets into your house.”
― Elizabeth Little, Pretty as a Picture

“Everyone loved this girl, right?” I reach for the bag of bread. “They always do, once they’re dead.”
― Elizabeth Little, Pretty as a Picture

“Give me a movie and I’ll find the meaning; I’ll find the truth; I’ll find the story. Sometimes, if I’m very lucky, I’ll find all three.”
― Elizabeth Little, Pretty as a Picture

“Nick laughs. “What, so I’m the villain here?”

No,” I say. “Villains advance the plot. You’re just a second-act complication.”
― Elizabeth Little, Pretty as a Picture

“The best way I can think to describe it is that there's a beehive in my chest, and most people upset the bees”
― Elizabeth Little, Pretty as a Picture

“... I'm catastrophizing, I know -- I know. But panic isn't Rumpelstiltskin. Simply naming it doesn't make it go away.”
― Elizabeth Little, Pretty as a Picture

“Everything in this whole horrible world would be eight million times easier if we just said what we meant and meant what we said and sure, we would probably have to sacrifice drama and comedy and irony and suspense, but honestly, the time we saved might be worth it.”
― Elizabeth Little, Pretty as a Picture

“It’s not a serial killer, cause of death doesn’t fit. I mean, Jack the Ripper. The Boston Strangler. Hannibal the Cannibal.” “‘Blunt Force Trauma Frank’ doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.”
― Elizabeth Little, Pretty as a Picture

“maybe because you finally realized you wrote a terrible script—so you decided to try to frame Billy for Liza’s murder. Send him to jail that way.”
― Elizabeth Little, Pretty as a Picture

“He’s wearing a pair of Sennheiser headphones that probably cost more than most high-end divorce attorneys.”
― Elizabeth Little, Pretty as a Picture

“But you’ve heard the stories, haven’t you? You’ve seen his movies. You’ve laughed, maybe, about his fastidiousness. Read essays, probably, about his exquisite attention to detail, about his deep, unmatched psychological insights, about the tremendous, heroic lengths he goes through to prepare his actresses—and they’re always ‘his’ actresses, aren’t they?”
― Elizabeth Little, Pretty as a Picture

“There are no limits to what he’ll do to get the performance he wants. And for this film, what he wanted was fear—it’s a favorite of his, really. I’m sure he told Liza he would never put her in any real physical danger.”
― Elizabeth Little, Pretty as a Picture

“No, but I’ve also never worked on a film where the lead actor tried to spirit me away to some clandestine meeting with a suspected murderer.”
― Elizabeth Little, Pretty as a Picture

“You have to understand, my job is to manage fear. And that requires as much psychological finesse as operational expertise. Making sure that a client is safe and that a client feels safe are often two very different things.”
― Elizabeth Little, Pretty as a Picture

“But my mind has a way of latching on to questions, like a dog with a bone. A wagon with a star. A Kardashian with a revenue stream. The only thing that’ll work it loose is an answer.”
― Elizabeth Little, Pretty as a Picture

“After nearly fifteen years here, though, celebrities are just part of the scenery, another thing to not notice on the drive home, and I don’t know what I hate more about my indifferent attitude, the cynicism or the way it sidles right up next to Hollywood cliché.”
― Elizabeth Little, Pretty as a Picture

“Like I’m Uma Thurman in Kill Bill, lying barefoot in the back of that truck, gritting my teeth and trying to force my insubordinate body to bend to my iron will.”
― Elizabeth Little, Pretty as a Picture

“I know I should respect that. I should move on. But my mind has a way of latching on to questions, like a dog with a bone.”
― Elizabeth Little, Pretty as a Picture

“I press my ring fingers into the corners of my eyes and try, once again, to figure myself out.”
― Elizabeth Little, Pretty as a Picture

“So what if his responses dripped with disdain? At least they were prompt. At least they weren’t indifferent. I was so accustomed to nothing, I was ravenous for absolutely anything.”
― Elizabeth Little, Pretty as a Picture

“Part of the calculus of being me: weighing discomfort against opportunity”
― Elizabeth Little, Pretty as a Picture

“Dead Ringer is produced for the ear and designed to be heard, not read. We strongly encourage you to listen to the audio, which includes emotion and emphasis that’s not on the page.”
― Elizabeth Little, Pretty as a Picture

“Sometimes I think everything wrong with my life can be located in the space between what I should have said and what actually came out of my mouth.”
― Elizabeth Little, Pretty as a Picture

“And just like that, my spirits lift. “That means you know where the food is.” “Oh!” Grace says. “You missed dinner.” “That sucks,” Suzy says. “It was lamb merguez—” “With a warm carrot salad—” “And an orange-basil granita—” “There might be some leftovers?” I scratch the back of my neck and look away. “That sounds lovely, but I was sort of hoping I could just make myself a peanut butter sandwich.” Grace slides down off the counter. “Don’t be silly, I’ll make you some pasta—what do you want? Puttanesca? Arrabbiata?” I feel a frown coming on; I fight it back. “A sandwich is fine, really.” She adjusts her glasses and plants her hands on her hips. “My dad would seriously disown me if he knew I fed someone a peanut butter sandwich for dinner.” “But I don’t want pasta. I want a peanut butter sandwich”
― Elizabeth Little, Pretty as a Picture