Barreca Quotes & Sayings

Having a lean and hungry look was frowned upon in my Italian neighborhood where a girl was considered too skinny if she could make her knees touch. — Gina Barreca

Some argue the days of furthering or bettering oneself through a liberl arts education are gone, but that's true only if "furthering and bettering" means "making more money" ... For many life reveals itself more intimately in literature than in ledgers. — Gina Barreca

Like love, breakfast is best when made at home. — Gina Barreca

Boys are rewarded for playing games where they line up by height and then run into walls. Perhaps I'm making that up
or perhaps you should do a Google search for "Guy Runs into Wall for Fun."
Not only do women hold up half the sky; we do it while carrying a 500-pound purse.
From age sixteen to age twenty, a woman's body is a temple. From twenty-one to forty-five, it's an amusement park. From forty-five on, it's a terrarium.
Bring your sense of humor with you at all times. Bring your friends with a sense of humor. If their friends have a sense of humor, invite them, too — Gina Barreca

If anger were mileage, I'd be a very frequent flyer, right up there in First Class. — Gina Barreca

I passed my classes because I displayed effort, not because I learned math. But how can we help young people understand life rarely gives partial credit for effort, especially if that effort doesn't lead to understanding or success? — Gina Barreca

I see taking care of my emotional and mental health in the same way that I see taking care of a garment: After it's been through wear and tear, it needs attention. — Gina Barreca

Women feel like we're fat if we can't wear the clothes we wore in high school. Men, in contrast, only start to feel fat only when they can no longer fit into a foreign car. — Gina Barreca

My mother thinks Mick Jagger is a foreign car. — Gina Barreca

Writers read. Writers read promiscuously, aggressively and relentlessly. — Gina Barreca

To slur "feminism" into "humanism" is to usurp women's voices once again, to make the singular feminine into the so-called universal masculine. — Gina Barreca

Never use the passive voice. Do not say, 'It will get done.' Say, 'I'll do it,' and then stick to a solid, unwavering deadline — Gina Barreca

Words can be as irrevocable as an action. They can cut as deeply as a surgeon's scalpel. — Gina Barreca

I have an intimate relationship with books. After all, I take them with me into the bathtub-not an invitation I offer lightly. — Gina Barreca

The '60s had edge; the '70s had embroidery. — Gina Barreca

Two things I do for maintenance: I get a manicure once a month, and I see my therapist about every six weeks. I am happy to report that, at this point, my nails crack more often than I do. — Gina Barreca

Recognizing your talents doesn't mean believing they're limitless. Accepting your strengths doesn't lead to pride, but instead to humility; you're less likely to resent what others have if you understand your own bounty. — Gina Barreca

Humor is a show of both strength and of vulnerability: you are willing to make the first move but you are trusting in the response of your listener. — Gina Barreca

While I do not believe the earth loaned to us by our ancestors should be plagued by chemical horrors and thereby corrupted for future generations, neither do I believe I should have to face anything that has more eyes than I have during dinner. It was my rule when I was dating and, heck, it's still my rule now. — Gina Barreca

We should learn to take genuine pride in a job well done and not expect praise for one simply carried out. — Gina Barreca

Think of the funniest story from your life. Chances are, it was something awful at the time. — Gina Barreca

For many of us, our proms were less Walt Disney's 'Cinderella' and more Stephen King's 'Carrie.' The less we spent on them, the better. — Gina Barreca

The search for truth can be compared to a cat chasing her tail: frantic in her pursuit, her quarry nevetheless eludes her; despite the fact that all the world can see it's right there, it remains just beyond her reach. It cannot be possessed because, paradoxically, it is already part of her. — Gina Barreca

It's not that diamonds are a girl's best friend, but it's your best friends who are your diamonds. It's your best friends who are supremely resilient, made under pressure and of astonishing value. They're everlasting; they can cut glass if they need to. — Gina Barreca

Anger can offer a sense of indignity to replace a sense of shame, and offer a voice-raised above others-which can finally be heard. Those voices are most effective when they are raised in unison, when they have mercy as well as anger behind them, and when, instead of roaring at the anger of old pain, they sing about the glorious possibilities of a future where anger has a smaller house than hope. — Gina Barreca

Speaking up is important. Yet to speak up without listening is like banging pots and pans together: Even if it gets you attention, it's not going to get you respect. — Gina Barreca

Patriotism is about a desire for progress, not a yearning for repetition. — Gina Barreca

We should remind ourselves that laughing together is as close as you can get to another person without touching, and sometimes it represents a closer tie than touching ever could. — Gina Barreca

Once we hit forty, women only have about four taste buds left: one for vodka, one for wine, one for cheese, and one for chocolate. — Gina Barreca

I'm pretty much done with mindfulness. I'm just going to start paying attention. — Gina Barreca

I am constantly surprised that the simple word 'feminism' raises more eyebrows and initiates more sad-faced head-shaking than any elaborate stream of invective I have ever leveled at either the I.R.S. or the D.M.V ... — Gina Barreca

As a kid, you await holidays with a wide-eyed, passionate, almost maniacal enthusiasm. Heavy breathing is involved. — Gina Barreca

Every patient tends to bury the most important story inside some other story, just the way new writers often 'bury the lede.' 'Burying the lede' is an old journalism term for when you only find out the real point about halfway into the article, but it also applies to therapy. — Gina Barreca

It's only when you're at the bottom of the ladder that you ascend. — Gina Barreca

The people I work with are like family. I don't mean this in a nice way. — Gina Barreca

Taking a lot of selfies doesn't mean you live an examined life. — Gina Barreca

There is a celebrated aphorism insisting that the best way to live is to 'work like you don't need the money, dance like nobody is watching, and love like you've never been hurt.' ... After years of hearing and reading these lines I have decided to tell the truth: the original version is wrong. There is a grave error in the wording of this adage. The correct version should go as follows:
Love like you don't need the money,
Work like nobody is watching,
Dance like you've never been hurt.
See? Doesn't that make more sense? — Gina Barreca

Laughing together is as close as you can get to a hug without touching. — Gina Barreca

How about "diamonds are a girl's best friends"? Nope. It should be switched around and pointed out, instead, that your best friends are diamonds. — Gina Barreca

Most cooks would not, for example, prepare an important, elaborate, and difficult dish on the back-burner. Neither should we relegate the cultivation and preparation of happiness for a position where it is both hard to reach and difficult to infuse with new ingredients. — Gina Barreca

Ask a woman if she's ambitious and she'll look at you as if you just asked whether she sticks pins in puppies for fun. Ask a woman if she's competitive and she'll look at you as if you suggested that she's a hooker. — Gina Barreca

Maturity understands that there's darkness in the world but that there's no need to dwell in it: we can lighten up and offer illumination to others. — Gina Barreca

My cat is older than many fashion models. I won't even discuss the fact that she also weighs more. — Gina Barreca

Truth is like nuclear waste: it needs to be dealt with carefully. Sometimes it needs to be buried way, way out of town. And sometimes it should never be uncovered at all. — Gina Barreca

In short, immaturity is spoiled. And what is spoiled doesn't ripen. It goes bad early, gets bitter and withers on the vine. — Gina Barreca

From age 16 to age 20, a woman's body is a temple. From 21 to 45, it's an amusement park. From 45 on, it's a terrarium. — Gina Barreca

Here's something women need to stop doing to other women: We need to stop asking each other to lower our fees, cut our rates or work for free because we're members of the same sex. — Gina Barreca

Almost 30 years ago, I started seeking help from a counselor with a master's of social work in New York City, but we were never a good match. It was like being in a bad relationship, except the guy could actually bill my health insurance company for lousy dates. — Gina Barreca

If you believe that your best years are behind you, you've guaranteed they are; I'm going to dance into that good night, with the oldies turned up loud. — Gina Barreca

My longing to improve my looks via The Body Shop is being replaced by my longing to improve my looks via Photoshop. — Gina Barreca

I personally translated the word 'vendetta' as Italian for 'What do you mean, "you want to see other women"? — Gina Barreca

Envy is what makes you, when an acquaintance is lustily telling you that she's dating a Greek god of a guy, ask, 'Which one, Hades?' — Gina Barreca

Confessions are like tattoos in that 1) You convince yourself that the immediate pain of going through the process means it won't bother you later on; 2) They are permanent. — Gina Barreca

I regard other women as my community, not my competition. — Gina Barreca

Until we're pushing up daisies, it might be good to remind ourselves daily that everything's coming up roses - for me and for you. — Gina Barreca

Birthdays are a reward for having shown up 365 days in a row. It's like getting a badge for attendance. — Gina Barreca

If you know you can do it - if you can already chart every day in your future - then why bother? Choose to do something you have more trouble imagining. Take a chance. — Gina Barreca

Anger is the quintessential individual-signature emotion: I am what makes me mad. — Gina Barreca

We all enter this world crying. Laughter is something we have to learn — Gina Barreca

Sometimes things can take a very long time and still not be very good. It took us all of evolutionary history just to get where we are today, for instance, and mostly where we are today is on the couch. — Gina Barreca

Comics know that time plus pain equals humor and that we can redeem even awful moments from the past by translating them into a shared experience. — Gina Barreca