Thank You for Listening Quotes

“Of course there should be an HEA. I’m so sick of this question. It’s a Romance! That’s the deal we make with our readers. It’s misogyny, plain and simple. You don’t see anyone telling Mystery readers they’re silly and unserious for wanting to know by the end of the book who the murderer was. Fuck off.
–June French in Cosmopolitan”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“Eventually, don’t know when, but eventually? You’re gonna have to stop thinking you’re nothing more than the damaged version of yourself.”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“Feelings are temporary. They stick around as long as you believe in them and then they’re gone, waiting to be believed in again. If they were permanent, then we’d only have to say I love you once and be done with it for the rest of our”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“I think everyone around you is waiting for you to accept yourself as you are now, so we can as well. And the bitch of it is you’re waiting for everyone to accept you as you are now so you can accept yourself and, sorry, but love, it’s your move. You’ve gotta go first.”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“You can’t just look at who someone is. You have to look at WHY someone is. Surface versus substance. That’s the difference between caricature and character.”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“It’s always the men, isn’t it, talking about writing from a place of pain. Maybe try writing from joy. We get it, the world is hard. Which is precisely why I write: to escape it. Calm down with this tortured artist shit already, my God. –June French in Cosmopolitan”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“I don't know where my ideas come from, but you know where they come to? My desk. And if I'm not there to greet them, they leave. Ass in the chair. Ass in the chair. That's art.”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“Feelings aren't constant. They're transient. Sometimes for the better, sometimes not. You can believe in them, but you can't know them. How can you know what something is before it becomes it?”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“We don’t feel real to me. It feels like we fell out of a romance tree and hit every trope on the way down.”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“Feelings are temporary. They stick around as long as you believe in them and then they're gone, waiting to be believed in again. If they were permanent, then we'd only have to say I love you once and be done with it for the rest of our lives.”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“Can't fail if I don't try."
...
"You're absolutely right. You'd regret trying and failing. But I'll do you one better. If you don't try, give it all you've got, you'll regret the hell out of never knowing if you would have succeeded.
...
"Because regret haunts you for the rest of your life," Sewanee chimed in from the cheap seats. She hadn't intended to say anything, but as soon as she felt the answer it was out of her mouth. She caught Marilyn's eye. Her mother smiled sadly at her. "It's like a ghost that refuses to leave your house."

Stu bugged his eye. "Why's it gotta leave? What, you think you can get through life avoiding regret? Avoiding failure?" He laughed. "Spoiler alert" life is regret, life is failure. But like that ghost, you learn to live with it. Because failure makes success matter.”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“He said I need to stop thinking I'm nothing more than the damaged version of myself. That who I am is who I am." She looked down at the blanket. "And it made me think: we break, in many different ways. But it doesn't mean we're broken. Do you get what I mean?”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“Cover up whatever you please for the world, but in intimacy? Hide nothing. In intimacy, everything is beautiful.”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“Take the risk. Fail. And let regret come along for the ride. A passenger, not the driver.”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“But! Ultimately, I don't think it matters what I say, does it? Will you ever truly believe, deep down, that anything other than pity brought me over to you? Nothing I say can make that scar disappear for you. I can tell you I don;t see it and you will always see it. i can tell you you're everything that keeps me up at night and everything I daydream about and how that makes you feel might last a day or a week or an hour. Feelings are temporary. They stick around as long as you believe in them and then they're gone, waiting to be believed in again. If they were permanent, then we'd only have to say I love you once and be done with it for the rest of our lives.”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“Spoiler alert: life is regret, life is failure. But like that ghost, you learn to live with it. Because failure makes success matter.”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“You’re absolutely right. You’d regret trying and failing. But I’ll do you one better. If you don’t try, give it all you’ve got, you’ll regret the hell out of never knowing if you would have succeeded.”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“She was drawn into the story as an aroma draws one to a meal.”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“It took me a lifetime to find my place in this world. But it was worth it—'cause it's with you.”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“He was the musical genius. I just write a little, play a little guitar, and sing a little. That’s my M.O.: do a lot of things a little.”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“Forget your personal tragedy. We are all bitched from the start and you especially have to be hurt like hell before you can write seriously. But when you get the damned hurt, use it–don’t cheat with it. –Ernest Hemingway”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“I was a fearless boy who became a fearful man.”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“You have a gray hair!”
Sewanee’s head popped up. “What? Where?!”
“Right in the part.”
“Well, yank it out!”
Marilyn chortled and pulled away. “Ohhhh, no! Nope.” She stood. “You’re going to leave it be. You’re a tiger and you earned that stripe.”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“Don't interrupt me or I'll hang up. She'll call you when she's ready. Meanwhile, if production is antsy, so be it. It's a movie. It doesn't matter. Adaku matters. And if you're antsy, I suggest you take some time to reflect on how your actions contributed to this situation. For instance: You keep pronouncing her name AH-duk-koo. It's ah-DAH-koo. You're her manager, all these other people take their cues from you, and if you can't even-"

"Whoa, don't spin this like I don't care, you don't know me-"

"Manse, you interrupted. Bye."

She hung up. And felt like a million dollars before taxes and commissions. She stood, stretched, and decided she'd get herself a milk shake, too.”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“So you take all that hurt and resentment, suffered in silence, and you let it simmer for decades and it distills down into anger." She looked out at the canal next to them, the water close enough to throw late-afternoon ripples onto her face. "That's what I found so hard, Swan. I didn't know how to love an angry man who pretended to be fine." To stave off Sewanee's response, Marilyn held up a hand, her left one, ringless. "We had a good life together. Life is never one thing. But I think I was his consolation prize. And if there's one things I've learned, Swanling: never be a consolation prize."

How could Sewanee not think of Nick when Marilyn said this? Didn't this justify her feelings? And then Marilyn added, "Especially your own," which spun Sewanee's head around.”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“Life is never one thing.”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“Prologues are like flirting: there’s a time and place. But sometimes you just need to push the reader up against the wall and stick your tongue down their throat.”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“To live HEA is to say from today onward life will be happy. I mean, how can you know that? Shit happens. Over and over...I don't think you can know if you lived happily ever after until your life's over...Maybe that's why your whole life flashes before your eyes when you die. So you can see the movie from beginning to end, and know.”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“Because regret haunts you for the rest of your life. It's like a ghost that refuses to leave your house.'

'Why's it gotta leave? What, you think you can get through life avoiding regret? Avoiding failure? Spoiler alert, life is regret, life is failure. But like that ghost, you learn to live with it. Because failure makes success matter.”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening

“His story had given her a peek into his personality; her story was a naked reveal of all her rawest parts. It was not an equal exchange of insight.”
― Julia Whelan, Thank You for Listening