Curtis Sittenfeld quotes

Anyone who's really interested in anything spends time alone. (Curtis Sittenfeld)
I wanted to hold happiness in reserve, like a bottle of champagne. I postponed it because I was afraid, because I overvalued it, and then I didn't want to use it up, because what do you wish for then? View quote
Curtis Sittenfeld
Perhaps this is how you know you're doing the thing you're intended to: No matter how slow or how slight your progress, you never feel that it's a waste of time. View quote
Curtis Sittenfeld
I have this theory that the likeability question comes up so much more with female characters created by female authors than it does with male characters and male authors. View quote
Curtis Sittenfeld
I just think that people are complicated, both men and women. It happens that I write more about women. View quote
Curtis Sittenfeld
I always worried someone would notice me, and then when no one did, I felt lonely. View quote
Curtis Sittenfeld
... nothing broke my heart like the slow death of a shared joke that had once seemed genuinely funny. View quote
Curtis Sittenfeld
I wanted my life to start - but in those rare moments when it seemed like something might actually change, panic shot through me. View quote
Curtis Sittenfeld
To remain alone did not seem to me a terrible fate, no worse than being falsely joined to another person. View quote
Curtis Sittenfeld
In some ways I think it would be very dignified if I went away for twenty years and then wrote my fourth book. View quote
Curtis Sittenfeld
And I am pretty sure that's the point of reading fiction -- so someone else can say in a way you never would have something you recognize immediately. (Curtis Sittenfeld)
Foolish names and foolish faces often appear in public places. View quote
Curtis Sittenfeld
What greater happiness is there than the privilege of being bored together? View quote
Curtis Sittenfeld
Before and after... I heard a thousand times that a boy, or a man, can't make you happy, that you have to be happy on your own before you can be happy with another person. All I can say is, I wish it were true. View quote
Curtis Sittenfeld
If you knew where your happiness came from, it gave you patience. You realized that a lot of the time, you were just waiting out a situation, and that took the pressure off; you no longer looked to every interaction to actually do something for you. View quote
Curtis Sittenfeld
I feel like a lot of life is distasteful and embarrassing. And you just push through it. You fix what you can, and you let time pass. View quote
Curtis Sittenfeld
The better you learn to take care of yourself, the less you settle for being around people who can't or won't treat you as well as you're accustomed. View quote
Curtis Sittenfeld
It's never that hard for me to imagine what it must feel like to be someone else, whether it's an American teenage girl or a Japanese octogenarian man. View quote
Curtis Sittenfeld
We have to make mistakes, it's how we learn compassion for others. View quote
Curtis Sittenfeld
If a man wants to be romantically involved with you, he tries to kiss you. That's the entire story, and if he doesn't kiss you, there is never a reason to wait around for him. View quote
Curtis Sittenfeld
We all make mistakes, don't we? But if you can't forgive yourself, you'll always be an exile in your own life. (Curtis Sittenfeld)
I don't really have special rituals, but I don't try to write fiction unless I have a minimum of a few hours. For me, it takes a while to settle into a mode where I'm truly concentrating. View quote
Curtis Sittenfeld
Being raised in an unstable household makes you understand that the world doesn't exist to accommodate you, which... is something a lot of people struggle to understand well into their adulthood. It makes you realize how quickly a situation can shift, how danger really is everywhere. But crises when the occur, do not catch you off guard; you have never believed you lived under a shelter of some essential benevolence. And an unstable childhood makes you appreciate calmness and not crave excitement. View quote
Curtis Sittenfeld
I don't think it's shameful to admit that some days your time can be better spent reading than writing. View quote
Curtis Sittenfeld
Well, I think that if you sincerely try to imagine what life is like for another person - not in a mocking way, not in a satirical way, but in a sincere, compassionate way - I don't think that's exploitive. View quote
Curtis Sittenfeld