129 Quotes by Emma Cline

No one had ever looked at me before Suzanne, not really, so she became my definition. Her gaze softening my centre so easily that even photographs of her seemed aimed at me, ignited with private meaning.

What’s funny is that as soon as you give everything away, as soon as you say, Here, take it – that’s when you really have everything.

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

All the other girls thought the director was making the choice. But it was really me telling the director, in my secret way, that the part was mine.

Tutto il tempo che avevi trascorso a sistemarti, a leggere articoli che ti preparassero alla vita, era una sala d’aspetto in attesa di qualcuno che si accorgesse di te. Quel tempo i ragazzi lo avevano trascorso a diventare loro stessi.

She clung to him like a burr.

The moment the frightened people understand the sweet dailiness of their lives – the swallow of morning orange juice, the tilting curve taken on a bicycle – is already gone.

How they told me I was having fun all the time, and there was no way to explain that I wasn’t.

I thought that loving someone acted as a kind of protective measure, like they’d understand the scale and intensity of your feelings and act accordingly. That seemed fair to me, as if fairness were a measure the universe cared anything about.