Rothenberg Quotes & Sayings

There's no such thing as too much Disney. — Jess Rothenberg

My heart didn't fail, someone failed my heart. — Jess Rothenberg

Love is no game. People cut their ears off over this stuff. People jump off the Eiffel Tower and sell all their possessions and move to Alaska to live with the grizzly bears, and then they get eaten and nobody hears them when they scream for help. That's right. Falling in love is pretty much the same thing as being eaten alive by a grizzly bear. — Jess Rothenberg

There's always that one guy who gets a hold on you. Not like your best friend's brother who gets you in a headlock kind of hold. Or the little kid you're babysitting who attaches himself to your leg kind of hold.
I'm talking epic. Life changing. The "can't eat, can't sleep, can't do your homework, can't stop giggling, can't remember anything but his smile" kind of hold. Like, Wesley and Buttercup proportions. Harry and Sally. Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. The kind of hold in all your favorite '80s songs, like the "Must Have Been Love"s, the "Take My Breath Away"s, the "Eternal Flame"s - the ones you sing into a hairbrush-microphone at the top of your lungs with your best friends on a Saturday night. — Jess Rothenberg

I think artists almost always end up turning to what's around them, what's in their environment or outside their window. — Susan Rothenberg

I was falling. Falling through time and space and stars and sky and everything in between. I fell for days and weeks and what felt like lifetime across lifetimes. I fell until I forgot I was falling. — Jess Rothenberg

You did love me," I whispered. "Just not the same way I loved you. — Jess Rothenberg

The trouble is, sometimes words are like arrows. Once you shoot them, there's no going back. — Jess Rothenberg

But the sort of sucky thing is, time doesn't necessarily heal all wounds. Sometimes, it just makes the wounds worse. — Jess Rothenberg

Heres the problem: Journalists just dont understand their business. — Randall Rothenberg

California is going to be quite good for the Democrats. But the rest of the country is a draw. — Stuart Rothenberg

For the record, I would like to point out that it is NOT being obsessive to memorize a boy's schedule so that you can accidentally bump into him. It is called being efficient. — Jess Rothenberg

I am aware that what
the body does for love
is sometimes not.
I celebrate reversals.
I watch a funeral
somewhere at sea. — Jerome Rothenberg

I bet,' he whispered, 'once upon a time, you made someone really, really happy. — Jess Rothenberg

Don't worry." He laughed. "I'm right here. I won't let you go." - Patrick — Jess Rothenberg

I gave him a look. "Are you always this charming?"
"Are you always this beautiful? — Jess Rothenberg

I remember now." I looked into his deep, dark, familiar eyes. "And I'll never forget again. — Jess Rothenberg

You can obsess and obsess over how things ended - what you did wrong or could have done differently - but there's not much of a point. It's not like it'll change anything. So really, why worry? — Jess Rothenberg

If this isn't the Fat Lady singing, it's awful close to that. If Ari seriously thought she was a contender for the presidential nomination, he would not walk away right now. — Stuart Rothenberg

In the midst of happiness or despair
in sorrow or in joy
in pleasure or in pain:
Do what is right and you will be at peace. — Jess Rothenberg

I guess maybe once in a while the universe just knows a good thing when it sees it. — Jess Rothenberg

The same electorate that is unhappy with [Pennsylvania's] GOP Sen. Rick Santorum appears to have some qualms with Rendell. — Stuart Rothenberg

This Jacob dude sounds like a real Bilbo Douche-Baggins. — Jess Rothenberg

I can say that paintings are prayers, they have to do with anything that makes you wish for more that what everyday life provides. — Susan Rothenberg

Racism and sexism are not "problems" or "topics." They are ways of defining reality and living our lives that most of us learned along with learning how to tie our shoes and how to drink from a cup. — Paula Rothenberg

Love's super-sneaky like that. — Jess Rothenberg

Love is such a complete and total crock. — Jess Rothenberg

He gave me a small smile, and in that smile I saw our whole catastrophic history playing out before my eyes. — Jess Rothenberg

Not that I was obsessive or anything.
Au contraire, mon frere.
For the record, I would like to point out that it is NOT obsessive to memorize a boy's schedule so that you can accidentally bump into him. It is called being efficient. Why waste time and energy running around town trying to guess where a guy's going to be, when instead, you can actually know? And then you can actually be there. Pretty straightforward stuff, I tend to think. — Jess Rothenberg

I started to try to be a colorist, although secretly thinking of myself as somewhat of a black and whiteist. — Susan Rothenberg

What we're seeing early on is Democrats rallying around Al Gore, Republicans rallying around George Bush and the difficulty of anybody else to get any room in the race. — Stuart Rothenberg

News flash, Bozo. Don't ever tell a girl to relax. It only makes us madder. — Jess Rothenberg

Sometimes, friends drift in and out of our lives like fashion accessories - in one season and out the next. — Jess Rothenberg

You fall, I fall, remember? — Jess Rothenberg

He took your sweet, funny, perfect heart ... and he destroyed it. Why do you keep letting him do it over and over again? — Jess Rothenberg

All of a sudden I felt invisible. Forgotten. Like the universe had played a really mean practical joke on me, even though I've never done anything to deserve it. — Jess Rothenberg

Sometimes, remembering hurts too much. — Jess Rothenberg

Advertising agencies used to serve as their clients' eyes and ears in the marketplace. Was there a need for a new product? Was a service now more popular in the suburbs than the cities? Were more men using a household cleanser than women? The ad agency's research department was usually the first, and often the only, source for such information. — Randall Rothenberg

The problem is, there is absolutely nothing "fun" about falling in love. Nope. Mostly it just makes you feel sick and crazy and anxious and nervous that it's going to end miserably and ruin your whole life. And guess what: Then it does. — Jess Rothenberg

Patrick's entire front torso was covered with gruesome stab wounds. Like he'd been run through again and again with a sharp knife - and it hadn't been an accident.
"Oh, love," I whispered. "What did you do to yourself?"
Hot tears stung my eyes as I began to trace his scars with my fingertips, leaning in to kiss them softly, one by one.
"Sui Caedere," he said. "I couldn't live without you. — Jess Rothenberg

I think there has to be an interesting transformative process between your perception of reality and making the paintings. If you are just trying to render what you see you are not entering into a transformative process. And that's what makes a good painting: the process of transforming and the willingness to leave reality behind. — Susan Rothenberg

I had been at Comic-Con, and I have the same manager as Bob Morley, so we ended up at a Warner Bros. party. I met Jason Rothenberg for the first time, and he's a fan of Black Sails and Shameless and some of my work, and was like, "Hey, we've been having trouble casting this part. I think you'd be perfect for it, if you'd be willing to come up and have some fun for some episodes." — Zach McGowan

The problem with time is, sometimes there's just too much of it. — Jess Rothenberg

We will be drawing down some troops. If the president wants to try to turn that into the beginning of a success, he actually, I think, has some opportunity. — Stuart Rothenberg

Love hurts us all, no matter how old or young we are. — Jess Rothenberg

To have been lived to have love and to have been loved. — Jess Rothenberg

Forever is a pretty long time. Maybe longer than you think. — Jess Rothenberg

Accomplished a bit more for Bush than for Gore only because there were more question marks for Bush. I think he established that he possesses at least the minimum qualifications for being president. — Stuart Rothenberg

War is sweet to those who have never fought. — Jess Rothenberg

I skipped toward him and gave him a tiny kiss on the cheek. "Yup."
He looked at me like I was crazy. "What was that for?"
I smiled. "For being an excellent partner in crime. — Jess Rothenberg

Most of my painting is done sitting in a chair with a book. I'd say it's 80 per cent sitting and reading, 10 per cent eating and ten per cent painting. — Susan Rothenberg

Some of the pictures are truly mysterious to me.. which is why I so often say publicly that I don't know or don't care what they're really about. And yet I can also say that the paintings are prayers.. that they have to do with whatever it is that makes you want more than what daily life affords. — Susan Rothenberg

As for poetry 'belonging' in the classroom, it's like the way they taught us sex in those old hygiene classes: not performance but semiotics. If it I had taken Hygiene 71 seriously, I would have become a monk; & if I had taken college English seriously, I would have become an accountant. — Jerome Rothenberg

You build up a head of steam. If you're four days out of the studio, on the fifth day you really crash in there. You will kill anybody who disturbs you on that fifth day, when you desperately need it. — Susan Rothenberg

Turns out, hell's not so much a burning, scalding pit of fire and misery. It's actually much, much worse than that. Hell is when the people you love the most reach right into your soul and rip it out of you. And they do it because they can. — Jess Rothenberg

The paintings are like prayers, relating to wishing for something beyond everyday life. — Susan Rothenberg

Just like Jacob, Larkin made me realize that no matter how much you think you know a person-no matter how pretty they are, how together they act, or how popular they seem, you can never know what their lives are really like.
Not until you ask them.
And not unless you're listening. — Jess Rothenberg

I think it's less risky for the Kerry campaign to embrace former President Clinton than it is to reject him. — Stuart Rothenberg

And yes, when he kisses you, the rest of the world disappears and your brain shuts off and all you can feel are his lips and nothing else matters. — Jess Rothenberg

Sometimes the painting starts to relate very directly to either sights seen or experiences felt, other times it just goes off on a tangent that you really can't articulate. — Susan Rothenberg

The environment is better and better for Democrats. — Stuart Rothenberg

Life is far more interesting than it needs to be, because the forces that guide it are not merely practical. — David Rothenberg

White Privilege is the other side of racism. Unless we name it, we are in danger of wallowing in guilt or moral outrage with no idea of how to move beyond them. It is often easier to deplore racism and its effects than to take responsibility for the privileges some of us receive as a result of it ... once we understand how white privilege operates, we can begin addressing it on an individual and institutional basis. — Paula Rothenberg

Wait for me forever. Wait for me, for always. — Jess Rothenberg

Republicans have to be relieved. Given all the bad news this White House has faced, at least the president's hemorrhaging has stopped. — Stuart Rothenberg

And yes, he tells you that you're beautiful, and suddenly, you are. — Jess Rothenberg

I think I care about beauty, but I don't go for it. I hope it sometimes might be in there. I think, maybe, more in terms of a beautiful moment than trying to figure out what beauty is or what people respond to. — Susan Rothenberg

Because love is worth it after all. — Jess Rothenberg

Can people of color be racist?" I reply, "The answer depends on your definition of racism." If one defines racism as racial prejudice, the answer is yes. People of color can and do have racial prejudices. However, if one defines racism as a system of advantage based on race, the answer is no. People of color are not racist because they do not systematically benefit from racism. And equally important, there is no systematic cultural and institutional support or sanction for the racial bigotry of people of color. In my view, reserving the term racist only for behaviors committed by whites in the context of a white-dominated society is a way of acknowledging the ever-present power differential afforded whites by the culture and institutions that make up the system of advantage and continue to reinforce notions of white superiority. (Using the same logic, I reserve the word sexist for men. Though women can and do have gender-based prejudices, only men systematically benefit from sexism.) — Paula S. Rothenberg

No matter how much you think you know a person - no matter how pretty they act, or how popular they seem, you can never know what their lives are really like. — Jess Rothenberg

When you're in love, the world is brighter. Sunnier. The air smells flowerier, and your hair is silkier, and suddenly you find yourself smiling at babies and strangers and old couples walking down the beach holding hands. — Jess Rothenberg

Every single part of me ached, sort of like the universe was exploding inside my skull, or like my body was tearing itself apart in order to rebuild everything from the inside out. To re-create some twisted semblance of me. — Jess Rothenberg

My heart belongs to you," I whispered. "It has always belonged to you. — Jess Rothenberg

I'm saying that the domain of poetry includes both oral & written forms, that poetry goes back to a pre-literate situation & would survive a post-literate situation, that human speech is a near-endless source of poetic forms, that there has always been more oral than written poetry, & that we can no longer pretend to a knowledge of poetry if we deny its oral dimension. — Jerome Rothenberg

The problem with Matisse is that I can't ever figure out when he's done a good painting or a bad painting because I don't know how to analyse him. I just know that I like the way he put it on and I like his airs and forms. — Susan Rothenberg

I knew then that I'd been right. I had felt something changing between us in the weeks before my death - slow and steady - but just hadn't wanted to admit it. A distance had been brewing, all chilly and gray. I'd chosen to sit and watch the storm clouds gather instead of running for cover at the first hint of rain. And I had paid the price for waiting. Because the storm became a hurricane. — Jess Rothenberg

News flash: The whole thing is a huge mess and a giant nightmare and it's all about to explode in your face and you have no idea what
you've gotten yourself into. Love is no game. People cut their ears off over this stuff. People jump off the Eiffel Tower and sell all their
possessions and move to Alaska to live with the grizzly bears, and then they get eaten and nobody hears them when they scream for help.
That's right. Falling in love is pretty much the same thing as being eaten alive by a grizzly bear.
Believe me, I should know. — Jess Rothenberg