Jessica Knoll Quotes & Sayings

Taste, I had yet to learn, was the delicate balance between expensive and unassuming. — Jessica Knoll

(Mr. Friedman) was always kind of dopey."
"Actually, Bob is very smart. Too smart to be a teacher. It's why he doesn't connect with the stuxents. — Jessica Knoll

DiCaprio lose his shit for Claire Danes in Romeo + Juliet — Jessica Knoll

There are times I'm on the subway and it's so packed I can't escape the legs on my left and right. New Yorkers rage about this forced physical contact, but I secretly savor it, so soothed by the heat generated between bodies I could fall asleep on the shoulder of a stranger. — Jessica Knoll

But faith doesn't mean that to me anymore. Now it means someone seeing something in you that you don't, and not giving up until you see it too. — Jessica Knoll

In a clear voice, Mrs. Ross said, "This may be where we mark Liam's time with us, but I don't want you to think this is where you have to come to think about Liam." She held the vase close to her chest. "Think about him always." Her mouth puckered. "Anywhere. — Jessica Knoll

That would be the most surprising lesson I'd learn at Bradley: You only scream when you're finally safe. — Jessica Knoll

But I needed to build up my loneliness tolerance, was all. The loneliness became like a friend, my constant companion. I could depend on it, and only it. — Jessica Knoll

Maybe he wouldn't fear my bite, my kookiness, maybe he'd get past my thorny bristles to see there is sweetness here. Would understand that moving on doesn't mean never talking about it, never crying about it. — Jessica Knoll

the sun's last remaining thread fell across my face, bleaching any semblance of confidence I'd hoped to see. — Jessica Knoll

Arthur sighed heavily, like he was sorry he ever brought it up, but I knew he wasn't. The more sacred a piece of information, the more desperate the gatekeeper is to reveal it, the harder you have to work to relieve her of the burden. That way she doesn't feel horribly guilty about betraying confidences - what could she do? She was browbeaten into it! — Jessica Knoll

You might think someone like Hallsy would only be inclined to torture someone like me, but if she did that, it would be an admission of her own aesthetic shortcomings. As long as I deferred to her, it was in her best interest to embrace me. It sent the message that there was no need to be jealous or intimidated - she was every bit as desirable as an overaerobicized twenty-something. — Jessica Knoll

First semester, I learned that Jack Rogers sandals, so revered in college, screamed, "My small liberal arts school will always be the center of the universe!" I'd found a new axis, so into the trash went my gold, silver, and white pairs. — Jessica Knoll

It was eighteen hours ago that I discovered what the slimy inside of a brain looks like, what a face looks like without skin and lips and the odd pimple. — Jessica Knoll

Still, there was something about telling people where you worked, their eyes lighting up in recognition, that I needed right now. — Jessica Knoll

Moving on doesn't mean you don't talk about it. Or hurt about it. It's always going to hurt, — Jessica Knoll

It's a certain kind of hell, confessing your most humiliating sexual secrets to a room full of hairy middle-aged men. — Jessica Knoll

Bickering. It's so much uglier than a heated, dish-smashing fight, isn't it? — Jessica Knoll

the tuition's true payoff the connections, not the education, — Jessica Knoll

Luke was so perfect, he made me fearless. Because how could anything bad happen around a person like that? — Jessica Knoll

...sleeping pills are just button-shaped vulnerability. — Jessica Knoll

stylish, successful, engaged, and all by twenty-eight years old, no less. — Jessica Knoll

I wrapped myself in the flimsy hospital gown and tiptoed across the hospital room to sit down on the hospital bed, holding my arms across my chest, trying to contain my breasts. They seemed enormous and unpredictable without a bra. — Jessica Knoll

Education, travel, culture - this is what any pennies pinched should be used for, never flashy cars, loud logos, or personal maintenance. — Jessica Knoll

It must sound stupid, but it was the first time I realized that for rest of my life, till death do us part, it was on me to maintain this veneer's sparkly, streak-free shine. — Jessica Knoll

You know those people, just so fucking happy to be alive, bouncing down the street, buds in their ears and faces repulsive with pleasure as they belt out the lyrics to some noxious Motown classic. I've gotten bold, bumping them with my enormous bag as I pass by, savoring their outraged "Hey!" behind me. No one gets to be that happy. — Jessica Knoll

Hemingway used to write an ending to his novel only to delete it, asserting that it made the story stronger because the reader would always be able to intuit the ghost of that final, incorporeal passage. — Jessica Knoll

This was my fourth summer with Luke, and every year I watched as all that good, healthy outdoor activity - running, surfing, golfing, kite boarding - multiplied the golden flecks on his nose like cancer cells. — Jessica Knoll

My favorite strategy is to feign inferiority and encourage my enemy's arrogance. — Jessica Knoll

Hallsy is the type of person others describe as "wacky" and "kooky" which is just the civilized way of saying she's a nasty cunt. — Jessica Knoll

Sometimes I feel like a windup doll, like I have to reach behind and turn my golden key to produce a greeting, a laugh, whatever the socially acceptable reaction should be. — Jessica Knoll

Hot pink, I'm sure she spent a few minutes debating it - was she tan enough, maybe the navy silky sleeveless top instead, can't go wrong with navy - and over her shoulder, a cognac Prada the exact same shade as her shoes, the perfect match more age revealing than the skin starting to pucker in her neck. She had at least ten years on me, I determined, relieved. — Jessica Knoll

My heart seemed to drop down and back, the thing it always does right before I start to spin and spin. I refuse to call it a panic attack. Panic attacks are for nervous fliers, hipster neurotics. Their demons, whatever they are, can't even compare to the terror of knowing it's about to happen, the something bad I've been waiting for ever — Jessica Knoll

I couldn't decide which was worse - going gentle into that mom-jeans-wearing night, or fighting it, Botoxed and hungry, every step of the way. — Jessica Knoll

was one of those awful moments where you have no control over your reaction, when the pain is too exposed to hide. — Jessica Knoll

first time around. Only guys never — Jessica Knoll

By the end of it all I just assumed no one ever told the truth, and that was when I started lying too. — Jessica Knoll

It's okay to be insufferable as long as you're aware that you're being insufferable. At least that's how I justified it to myself. — Jessica Knoll

Women's Magazine, "A study found that the act of physically closing your menu once you've decided what to order can make you feel more satisfied with your choice. — Jessica Knoll

Hallsy is only thirty-nine, and already her face is pulled tight as a pair of Lululemon yoga pants across a plus-size girl's rear. She's never been married, which she'll tell you she never wants to be even though she hangs all over every remotely fuckable guy after a single drink, while they gently untangle her Marshmallow Man arms from around their stiff necks. It's no wonder the only ring on her finger is the Cartier Trinity, what with the way she's ruined her face and the fact that she spends more time sunning on the beach than she should running on a treadmill. But it's not just her sunspot-speckled chest and stocky, lazy frame. Hallsy is the type of person others describe as "whacky" and "kooky," which is just the civilized way of saying she's a nasty cunt. Hallsy she loves me. — Jessica Knoll

Now, Ani." Whitney was doing that thing I hate, pronouncing my name "Annie" instead of "Ah-nee." "Luke says the wedding is in Nantucket. Why there?" Because of the privilege inherent in the location, Whitney. Because Nantucket transcends all classes, all areas of the country. Go to South Dakota and tell some sad smug housewife you grew up on the Main Line, and she doesn't know she's supposed to be impressed. Tell her you summer on Nantucket - be sure to verb it like that - and she knows who the fuck she's dealing with. That's why, Whitney. — Jessica Knoll

I thought that by twenty-eight I could stop trying to prove myself and relax already. But this fight just gets bloodier with age. — Jessica Knoll

But a Kate could never give Luke what I give him, and that's the edge. Rusted and bacteria ridden, I'm the blade that nicks at the perfectly hemmed seams of Luke's star quarterback life, threatening to shred it apart. And he likes that threat, the possibility of my danger. But he doesn't really want to see what I can do, the ragged holes I can open. I've spent most of our relationship scratching the surface, experimenting with the pressure, how much is too much before I draw blood? I'm getting tired. — Jessica Knoll

how young twenty-four is when you're not fourteen. — Jessica Knoll

I think you know when two people are meant for each other when you see that they're better people together than they are when they're apart. — Jessica Knoll

This is Luke's favorite thing to say about me, to remind me. I'm a survivor. It's the finality of the word that bothers me, its assuming implication. Survivors should move on. Should wear white wedding dresses and carry peonies down the aisle and overcome, rather than dwell in a past that can't be altered. The word dismisses something I cannot, will not, dismiss. — Jessica Knoll

I came across Nell like you would a Robert Mapplethorpe at a street art fair, gobsmacked that something so valuable would be lumped in with a bunch of other crap like that. She'd been slumped against the bathroom wall in Butterfields, a dorm we later took to calling Butterfingers, for the lacrosse team residents who manhandled girls made Gumby-legged by Popov vodka. Even with her mouth hanging open, her tongue dry and pebbled white from all the medically sanctioned stimulants, there was no question that she had a movie star face. "Hey," I said, my — Jessica Knoll

It must sound stupid, but it was I realized that for rest of my life, till death do us part, it was on me to maintain this veneer's sparkly free, streak-free shine. — Jessica Knoll

It was a hard thing to do, apologize, but I've done harder things. — Jessica Knoll

I came to the conclusion that if a woman of the cloth could be so sure she was going to heave despite being such a massive asshole, God must be more lenient than I'd been led to believe. — Jessica Knoll

There is something about seeing someone from behind, something about the way people walk away, that I've always found unnervingly intimate. Maybe it's because the back of the body isn't on guard the way the front is - the slouch of the shoulders and the flex in the back muscles, that's the most honest you'll ever see a person. — Jessica Knoll

He imagined the future I could have before I even wanted it for myself, and he was the one to push me toward it. That's faith. Growing up, I thought faith was about believing Jesus died for us, and that if I held on to that, I'd get to meet him when I died too. But faith doesn't mean that to me anymore. Now it means someone seeing something in you that you don't, and not giving up until you see it too. I want that. I miss that. — Jessica Knoll

All my life, I've found it difficult to advocate for myself, to ask for what I want. I fear burdening people so much. — Jessica Knoll

I told Luke about that night at a time when he was enamored with me, which is the only time you should ever tell anyone something shameful about yourself - when a person is mad enough about you that disgrace is endearing. — Jessica Knoll

I should do three things every day, but instead I sit, paralyzed in front of my computer, beating myself up for not doing three things every day like I promised myself I would. I've determined this is more time-consuming and stressful than actually doing the three goddamn things a day, and, therefore, I'm entitled to my fury. — Jessica Knoll

Sometimes, a momentary truce in girlhood is much more precious than a guy you really like asking you out, sticking around even after getting the milk for free. — Jessica Knoll