Open Book Quotes
"I usually join in on painting, but I am so pregnant with our daughter Birdie that today I just sat and watched, hoping that if I just shifted one more time, I would somehow get comfortable."
"It’s all part of taking a chance and expanding man’s horizons. The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave."
"As I rubbed her nose, Maxwell settled in to her pillow and sighed. I looked down at her closed eyes. She is growing up so fast, I thought."
"For me, sitting down here with a piece of paper and a pen is like, "Hello, self! What are we gonna confront tonight?""
"The truth is that I didn’t want to lie to you. I couldn’t be honest with you if I wasn’t honest with myself first."
"Someone, maybe you, needs me to say the things that are scary to admit. If I go there, maybe I can show you that you can, too."
"Standing in front of the mirror at seventeen, pinching a tiny vice grip of stomach fat until I bruised, because the first thing I heard from the record company after I signed was, "You’ve got to lose fifteen pounds.""
"I promise we’ll laugh, too, because I do get myself into situations. Most of all, I promise to be totally honest with you, so you can feel safe to be honest with yourself, too."
"I realized, within that year of writing, how much I went through without letting him know. His choice to leave my mother was like a bomb going off in my life, and I still found myself clinging to whatever I could hold on to."
"I wasn’t drunk. Trust me, two was not doing it at that point. All the feelings I had been suppressing washed over me in a rush, and I was drowning in them."
""Yes!" I said. "Like, right now. Yes." I know my limits, and I had gone beyond them."
""Well, she was a busted condom," Dad would say in my earshot when I set out to do something big. "So, she came with purpose." My mom always told me I was the fastest swimmer."
"There are moments when I read what I wrote now and I say, "Wait, I like this person. We could make a good life together if we were friends.""
"But I needed the picture to post. Eric and the kids didn’t care, but people expected it, I told myself."
"I had always been the boss, always in control, so I guess they thought I just needed a minute."
"Once I had my new photos, we Mouseketeer wannabes went into the two weeks of bonding and learning."
"Justin and Ryan were huge flirts, and I was the girl they focused on."
"There were eleven of us, and the term 'Top Eight' became the Holy Grail."
"That night I overheard my parents talking quietly about what that would mean."
"I have blocked out some details, so bear with me."
"Every day I came home from school and checked the mail like I’d spelled out HELP on a deserted isle."
"MY PARENTS LOOKED FOR A VOCAL COACH IN THE AREA."
"‘Jessica, you have to know something,’ she said. ‘You’re gonna have to face this again.’"
"‘Well then tell Ryan you won big,’ I said as he dialed."
"I wasn’t the only person Sarah visited after her death."
"‘Okay, I hear you, God,’ I said, loud so He and the bird could hear me. ‘I get the message. Thanks, God.’"
"‘I want to be an example to girls all over the world,’ I said, ‘that you don’t have to compromise your values to be successful.’"
"‘As far as I’m concerned,’ he said, ‘because I still have to talk to Donnie, I would sign you today. Your music is fantastic how it is.’"
"‘Okay, you gotta lose fifteen pounds,’ Tommy told me."
"‘I respect that,’ he said. ‘Thank you for telling me.’"
"‘She came here?’ I asked, pointing at the photo."
"‘Jessica, you’ve got to relax,’ she whispered back."
"‘I want to have babies,’ I said. ‘Please don’t take them from me.’"
"I remember exhaling, like I had finally done it. It was, without question, one of the greatest moments of my professional life."
"The best competition is always our own selves."
"I wanted to be still just for a moment and hold on to this feeling of happiness and pride."
"If you feel it, I feel it, too, and you all inspire me to keep on keepin' on."
"I thought, I’m on stage, it’s dark. People will be like, ‘Oh, wow, she’s ripped.’"
"Being with you makes me happy. I loved us. I don’t have that right now."
"We were not one of those couples that screamed at each other, let whatever fly out of our mouths, and then make mad, passionate love."
"I couldn’t imagine telling people I wanted a divorce. For generations, my family passed down a marriage guide that only had one tip: 'Hang in there.'"
"The truth was far worse. 'I’m starting to feel we can’t have cameras on us anymore,' I told Nick. 'Our marriage is scary.'"
"Of course, it rained. It had rained on our wedding day and our anniversaries."
"We were living life for a line. It would sometimes be the one thing we agreed on."
"I realized they wanted a reaction on camera. If we can’t get them to interact romantically, let’s have them fight."
"I was so prepared, because I wanted to prove to the whole cast and crew that I’d gotten this on my own."
"I felt a force drawing us together. I wondered why I was open to this."
"He believed in me and made me feel like I could do anything."
"Change is easy," he said. "Staying the same is a lot harder on you."
"Don’t be looking at me through whisky-colored glasses, lady," he said.
"I think CaCee felt guilty because I saw a freedom in her life that I wanted."
"Nick, you married a baby. I’m not that person anymore."
"I knew I was hired for my body and treated it like an athlete would."
"We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."
"I left my body for a second and just saw the scene. Nick in tears, and this girl keeping a poker face."
"I felt manipulated into some revenge fantasy, but I had put myself in this situation."
"I constantly worried that I wasn’t smart enough for him."
"I was humiliated and thought he was out of my life for good."
"I broke a blood vessel in my throat before a round of live morning shows."
"I saw someone staring up at me, but I was too high up to make out his face. His hair was wild and curly, like I pictured Romeo."
"I always knew you were so talented, but to own that stage is such a gift."
"There’s something wonderful about rediscovering each other as sisters, when you’re in your twenties."
"I promise to be myself as I search to become the woman you already see."
"I had gone from trying to find that woman for me, and now I had to be that woman for John."
"It was the start of me relying on alcohol to mask my nerves."
"Did he repeatedly stab me in the heart, or did I just keep running into the knife he aimed at me?"
"The concert would be taped to air on CBS later in the month, and I got to sing '9 to 5.'"
"I lost it, heaving big hyperventilating sobs in a dress I wanted to burst out of, a necklace that seemed to choke me."
"I turned, and as I stepped, I started to hop to the wing, a childish move to pretend none of this had happened."
"This notion that the secretly deep cheerleader was going to save the hot band geek from the path of destruction he had put himself on."
"I thought I was ready, having rehearsed many times on-set in Shreveport, Louisiana."
"I kept staring at a printout of the lyrics, and they all blurred together."
"I sat on the bed. I hadn’t shown up in the studio—not for John, but for me."
"I started crying again, and then laughed at myself for being so sentimental."
"I was so afraid of disappointing him that I couldn’t even text him without having someone check my grammar and spelling."
"I can’t even believe the acrobatics of promising to remain true to your own self while becoming the person someone wants you to be."
"I was able to let go of a lot of the guilt I had about her missing high school to join me on the road."
"We looked at each other for a long beat, and so much that was unspoken was released."
"But now that I have learned to forgive myself, I see the bigger picture."
"The Price of Beauty was who I really am. Let’s get to the heart of this."
"Once the shoot was finished, we met at Nobu in Hollywood, and Eric got a crash course in most of my girlfriends, my mom, and some of the girls who work on the Collection."
"I watched him eat what amounted to salad stuffed into rice rolls and asked, 'How are you happy? Aren’t you starving?'"
"For the first time in years, I wasn’t even thinking of that. We came home and made love."
"I watched him sit outside, with his feet in my koi pond, meditating. Who is this guy? I thought."
"This light walked into my life, and I remember the moment I realized I didn’t have to give him my light."
"A poem in just one sentence. It stayed with me."
"I love TV. I didn’t get to watch much as a kid, so I made up for it as an adult."
"I love you. You are the creator of LUNA, and I would also like to share my thanks with your amazing staff."