These Women Quotes

“She craves the brutality of the attack because when it comes it will be a release.”
― Ivy Pochoda, These Women

“Why do men and other women want to punish women?”
― Ivy Pochoda, These Women

“You can hope and pretend. You can imagine that the world is violent and that is has nothing to do with you - that the women who die nearby are a symptom of an abstract evil, a distant one. Because to do otherwise would be overwhelming, it would undo you from the inside out, rip you apart just as badly as if you were one of the victims yourself.”
― Ivy Pochoda, These Women

“Dorian didn’t understand the curse of skin tone.”
― Ivy Pochoda, These Women

“I have always been interested in the destruction of the female body. Or perhaps in how the world is out to destroy it. It is, I’d guess, more than anything else the target of more violence, physical, psychological, emotional, let’s say, than anything else in the world.”
― Ivy Pochoda, These Women

“But choices are choices. And some people don't get too many.”
― Ivy Pochoda, These Women

“And so what if my job isn't exactly, what-do-you-call-it, white collar? It's fucking no collar. No collar, no fucking shirt. Not even pants. And so what? At least it isn't in Little Rock. Hell, you might not like what I do, might not understand it. But at least I get to be outside. At least I get to walk, to choose my streets, to take it all in - smell the goddamn flowers, which is more than I can say for most folks around here.”
― Ivy Pochoda, These Women

“The mud carries Anneke. There's a moment when she feels as if she is flying and floating. She closes her eyes, lets herself be carried. Is this what the woman in El Salvador felt bobbing in the waves? Was this how she bounced against rocks weightless on the water? When did she stop caring? Was it before she was tossed into the sea? Or was it when the darkness came across Rodger's eyes a floodtide of black that swallowed his irises? Down the mud goes. The hills of Malibu are receding above her. The mud is rushing invading some houses and skipping others. Is this house the world slips away in slow motion? Anneke is spinning buffeted from one side of the stream to the other. It's almost peaceful. These women. These women, beautiful and wild, out of control. These women he loved with a ferocity he couldn't tame, a passion he didn't understand. These women who tortured and tormented him. These women who would taunt screw and die. These women he loved, hated, and destroyed. These women. All these women who haunted Western. Anneke had tried to keep them safe, she tried. What more does the world want? The mud blankets her face as black as Rodger's stare. One by one things are lost to her: sight, smell, and now sound. She can no longer hear the mud roar. It has filled her ears. She continues down in quiet.”
― Ivy Pochoda, These Women

“There's an answer for everything. It's usually simple. It's people who complicate things.”
― Ivy Pochoda, These Women

“It's chilly but she sits outside. There's not enough cold in L.A. so you need to take what you can get to remind yourself that things can change and the world keeps spinning.”
― Ivy Pochoda, These Women

“Dorian could tell her a thing or two about how the rage is senseless. How it accomplishes nothing. How all that screaming and anger only digs you in deeper, alienates you, makes people pity and fear you—as if grief is contagious.”
― Ivy Pochoda, These Women

“These women... Give them a bone and they'll gnaw all day.”
― Ivy Pochoda, These Women