Pretending Quotes
"You can’t love without fear, I told myself. There must be someone, I told myself. They can’t all be broken, I told myself."
"Everyone always thinks they’re the one at the time, otherwise why would we bother?"
"If these books are to be believed, all men are the same and none of them want a woman who is real in any way."
"In order to be loved by a heterosexual man, you must not need or want to be loved by a heterosexual man."
"So it was six dates, so he didn’t like me, so he’s actually a dick, so he’s not The One after all. So what?"
"You have to think they’re different in order to put yourself through it. It’s only when you’re out of it that you realize how insane you were to think that."
"I actually, physically, mentally, spiritually, can’t do this to myself anymore. I can’t put myself through it. It’s not worth it."
"All you have to do is pretend to be someone else... Me."
"I’m just your regular everyday Manic Pixie Dream Girl Next Door Slut With No Problems. i.e. Exactly what all men want."
"I won’t have PTSD from a rape or an eating disorder or anything—I would never get raped, that’s totally not my thing."
"I completely and utterly know my worth, and, if he doesn’t show me the respect I deserve, I will let him know it."
"No man can believe his actual luck when he meets me."
"Dead inside, but in a good way. A useful way."
"I’ve seen her screaming outside an ex’s house at least twice."
"It’s problem solving, it’s building worlds out of nothing."
"I’ve lived my whole life as a girl and I’ve turned so many goddamned cheeks I’m surprised I have any skin left on my face."
"Living life and being an adult is terrible. Why does nobody tell you how terrible it is?"
"I'm just picky, that's all. If I'm going to jump, and change my life, it's going to have to be for someone pretty special."
"There's always an option. You don't have to do everything the world expects of you."
"It's just sex, stop being weird, April. Stop being so goddamned weird."
"You don’t have to do everything the world expects of you."
"I sound like I’m in a job interview, but honestly, working for a charity is so rewarding."
"I’m so bored of pretending. How are any of us making it through each day without screaming?"
"It’s not like I’m in denial about what happened. But I can’t cry all day every day, even though I want to."
"It’s the violation that’s the violence, don’t you see? It’s knowing your boundaries mean bugger-all that’s the trauma."
"When you are at rock bottom with only a pickaxe to dig farther down with, you are willing to try just about anything."
"I’ve never felt more understood and less alone than I do in this precise moment."
"Better out than in. We all feel so safe with each other that it just kind of spills out."
"There’s nothing wrong with you for hoping this was it. He’s just an overgrown man-child."
"It’s something that links many women. Once I started coming here and talking about it, the more I realized it’s a case of who’s been lucky enough not to have this happen to them rather than the other way around."
"I feel like it would give me such release, but it won’t ever happen, not in my lifetime, so I just need to keep punching this bag and pretending I have a little."
"It’s getting dark by the time she’s fully calmed down again."
"I tell her about the boxing class and she perks up."
"My fingers pause in her hair. 'Oh,' I say. 'Him.'"
"Gretel: You need to hear this. Stop thinking a man will be different for you when you are so messed up."
"April: I don’t want power, I want to be loved."
"It seems to be working. At eleven, my calendar tells me that my shift is coming up."
"Gretel: Eating hot food cools you down. Science."
"Joshua: OK OK, O Captain, my Captain! Let’s go for spicy soup."
"We kiss more over the table, knocking over the nut grinder."
"I pretend I am her, because it’s easier, because it’s nice to pretend for myself sometimes."
"What happened to you doesn’t define who you are."
"I wipe off the ruined bits of my face, sort out my smudged makeup."
"Our trainers squeak on the floor, our bodies pant with exertion."
"How many men win the love of women, simply by being better than her ex?"
"I just hope he makes her happy. I’m very protective of Chrissy, she’s a good friend."
"Perhaps try not doing the thing, rather than doing the thing you know is annoying and then saying sorry?"
"Don’t do this. Don’t do that. Don’t be too much. Don’t be too little. Don’t scare him off. Don’t make him feel like you don’t care."
"I like that I’m not Gretel. I like that I’m me."
"It’s not that. I straight up lied about my name."
"I’ve had some things happen to me that shouldn’t have happened."