Once More with Feeling Quotes

“I'd made mistakes, but I'd paid for them. I'd learned from them. Mostly. I'd continue to learn from them. But not if I kept punishing myself over something I couldn't change. I'd done a bad thing, but I wasn't a bad person. I wasn't beyond salvation. Wasn't beyond love.”
― Elissa Sussman, Once More with Feeling

“There was no pride in being the best of the subpar.”
― Elissa Sussman, Once More with Feeling

“You’re also so fucking good that I can’t look away,” Cal said.”
― Elissa Sussman, Once More with Feeling

“Katee Rose had been beautiful and perfect and manufactured. Until she wasn't. Then she'd been sad, sloppy, and embrassing.”
― Elissa Sussman, Once More with Feeling

“At least I knew from experience that embarrassment wasn’t fatal.”
― Elissa Sussman, Once More with Feeling

“I believe in the power of starting anew,” he said. “Every show, every role, every performance, is a chance to start fresh. Every day is a new opportunity for success. I don’t plan on judging anyone for what you did yesterday, or the day before, or the year before.”
― Elissa Sussman, Once More with Feeling

“I didn’t have the luxury of saying no. Of walking away. And I didn’t want to. This was my chance. And I knew, from experience, that I might not get another. I was lucky to get this one. I wanted this part. Needed this part.”
― Elissa Sussman, Once More with Feeling

“And I loved myself more than I hated Cal.”
― Elissa Sussman, Once More with Feeling

“Just proof of my so-called reputation. The perfect justification for why I couldn’t be cast in the show in the first place. A self-fulfilling prophecy.”
― Elissa Sussman, Once More with Feeling

“Auditions were an opportunity to show exactly what you were capable of. To showcase not just your talent but the innate nerve required to be an artist—an unshakable confidence in your own skills. You needed to believe that you were great—that you were exactly what they were looking for. Some might call it arrogance.”
― Elissa Sussman, Once More with Feeling

“I wasn’t opposed to auditioning as a concept. I understood and respected the purpose of the exercise, and there had even been a time when I reveled in any opportunity to show off. To perform. When that giddy, nervous energy could sustain me for days.”
― Elissa Sussman, Once More with Feeling

“I didn’t smile and I spoke evenly. Slowly.”
― Elissa Sussman, Once More with Feeling

“Apparently he preferred a clean kill.”
― Elissa Sussman, Once More with Feeling

“But I couldn’t escape who I was.”
― Elissa Sussman, Once More with Feeling

“But hope was a dangerous, capricious thing.”
― Elissa Sussman, Once More with Feeling

“If he was trying to catch me off guard, he was going to have to try a lot harder. I was ready for him. Crouched, with tail twitching, just waiting for an opportunity to attack. I might have gotten softer and rounder since he last saw me, but I’d sharpened my claws. Donned some armor.”
― Elissa Sussman, Once More with Feeling

“This book is dedicated to Prozac and Jelly Bellies. I couldn’t have done it without you.”
― Elissa Sussman, Once More with Feeling

“The last time we’d seen each other, he’d called me a “mistake” and I’d told him to get the fuck out of my life. He’d obliged.”
― Elissa Sussman, Once More with Feeling

“He had floppy hair cut like a curtain in the middle of his forehead and a puka shell necklace,”
― Elissa Sussman, Once More with Feeling