129 Quotes by Emma Cline

That was part of being a girl--you were resigned to whatever feedback you'd get. If you got mad, you were crazy, and if you didn't react, you were a bitch. The only thing you could do was smile from the corner they'd backed you into. Implicate yourself in the joke even if the joke was always on you.

I'd always liked her in a way I never had to think about, like the fact of my own hands.

We were jealous, imagining a boyfriend who wanted you so bad he broke the law.

The desperate optimism of the born again.

Break down the self, offer yourself up like dust to the universe.

I noticed their hair first, long and uncombed. Then their jewelry catching the sun. The three of them were far enough away that I saw only the periphery of their features, but it didn’t matter-I knew they were different from everyone else in the park...These long-haired girls seemed to glide above all that was happening around them, tragic and separate. Like royalty in exile.

My parents were not affectionate, and it surprised me that someone could just touch me at any moment, the gift of their hand given as thoughtlessly as a piece of gum.

And now I was older, and the wishful props of future selves had lost their comforts.

Sometimes it seemed like I never really left... That a version of me is always there.