Rudnick Quotes & Sayings

Think of the place you've most wanted to see. First see it in your mind's eye. Now feel it in your heart. — Elizabeth Rudnick

And Belle? She was an odd girl who liked to read. — Elizabeth Rudnick

The people who talk behind your back are destined to stay there. — Elizabeth Rudnick

What was wrong with her? Why did things like this keep happening to her? Love wasn't supposed to hurt, yet it felt like all she knew when it came to love was pain. Every time she opened her heart, she just got burned. Or, in this case, frozen. And she was getting sick and tired of it. — Elizabeth Rudnick

Love is special, and anyone who gives you their heart is giving you a part of them. — Elizabeth Rudnick

Sometimes honestly really is the best policy. — Elizabeth Rudnick

I never got that show - Les Miz. It's about the French guy, right, who steals a loaf of bread, and then he suffers for the rest of his life. For Toast. Get over it! — Paul Rudnick

Nightlife is not for sissies, except of course for career sissies; an evening out requires at least a full day of minute preparation ... People move to New York to invent themselves, and nightclubs provide a runway for the results. It's easy to spend twenty hours per day slaving in a Pennsylvania coal mine or threshing some Nebraska oat crop; going out in New York is work. — Paul Rudnick

Deeply funny musings and adventures elevate Paul Rudnick to the highest level of American comedy writing. — Steve Martin

It was a lonely place. A place for the dark-hearted. It's where I deserve to be, Maleficent told herself every time she arrived. For only someone with a heart as dark as mine could do something so evil to a girl with a heart as light as Aurora's. — Elizabeth Rudnick

Wait, we can not break bread with you. You have taken the land which is rightfully ours. Years from now my people will be forced to live in mobile homes on reservations. Your people will wear cardigans, and drink highballs. We will sell our bracelets by the road sides, and you will play golf, and eat hot h'ors d'ourves. My people will have pain and degradation. Your people will have stick shifts. The gods of my tribe have spoken. They said do not trust the pilgrims, especially Sarah Miller. And for all of these reasons I have decided to scalp you and burn your village to the ground. — Paul Rudnick

I think people who make checklists are the most miserable and alone because they are looking for the perfect Entenmann's that is delicious and has no calories. Please, you want a brunette with a sense of humor, a doctorate and HIV-negative status? Good luck, honey. Love isn't so frequent that you can put conditions on it. — Paul Rudnick

Does she really need that many pairs of kneesocks? Aren't kneesocks just chastity belts for your shins? — Paul Rudnick

Guy cradled his tux, stroking it, running his fingers incestuously over the satin stripe on the trousers. There is a satisfaction that only superb clothing can offer, the joy of man raising himself from the mud, vindicating evolution. Life cannot lack purpose if a tuxedo exists - this is the obvious reply to the Samuel Beckett canon. — Paul Rudnick

Don't those girls know that beneath this goofy exterior is someone honost and generally awesome in every way? I'm a winner dammit — Elizabeth Rudnick

I was once all by myself in a house on Fire Island. Where I compared the original cast recordings of two different versions of The Wild Party. A helicopter should have descended and taken me away to a gay penal colony. But of course, I was already there. — Paul Rudnick

You and Sven and Sven. You're my family. I like you and you like me and we all helped each other back there. So isn't that family? — Elizabeth Rudnick

People say a lot of things in anger," she said. "It is our choice whether or not to listen. — Elizabeth Rudnick

No more creepy online alter egos in the name of love. — Elizabeth Rudnick

Love doesn't always make sense ... or happen the way you expect. — Elizabeth Rudnick

Hope flared in the Beast's eyes. "Really?" he asked. "You think you could be happy here?"
"Can anybody be happy if they aren't free?" Belle asked softly.
The Beast blinked guiltily, knowing she was right. — Elizabeth Rudnick

Still, Mrs Potts wasn't going to let the girl just leave - not if she could help it. And having lived with a stubborn individual for quite some time, she knew that sometimes the best way to make people do what they didn't want to do was to give them the chance to do it on their own terms. — Elizabeth Rudnick

I just hate that gay role models are supposed to be just like straight people, as if even straight people are like that. — Paul Rudnick

There is only one blasphemy, and that is the refusal to experience joy. — Paul Rudnick

Dysmorphia is when someone looks in the mirror, and sees something else. While I studied my own whatever I was, I decided that maybe everyone has at least a touch of dysmorphia; maybe it's impossible for anyone to ever truly know what they look like. — Paul Rudnick

Whenever I stumble over my own feet, or blurt out a thought that makes no sense at all, or leave the house wearing one pattern too many, I always think, It's okay, I'm from New Jersey. I love New Jersey, because it's not just an all-purpose punch line, but probably a handy legal defense, as in, Yes, I shot my wife because I thought she was Bigfoot, but I'm from New Jersey. — Paul Rudnick

I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's something quite different about you, from the last time we were together, what could it be ... ."
Was this my ultra-dose of Intoxicated taking effect?
"I know!" said the prince happily. "You're a national disgrace!"
"And do you know what else is interesting," I replied. "In America, Prince is a dog's name. — Paul Rudnick

If God didn't want you to have it, He would never have let you see it. — Paul Rudnick

Because there's a clock attached to every beautiful woman. From the second she comes into her own, she begins to decline, because she begins to age. Aging is every beautiful woman's kryptonite. And so, yes, it's ridiculous and no, you don't have much time and of course it's not fair. Those three statements are the essence of beauty. — Paul Rudnick

I believe in a benevolent God not because He created the Grand Canyon or Michelangelo, but because He gave us snacks. — Paul Rudnick

Venice was luscious. She had real curves and real cleavage. She had a stunning face, set off by a broad, lascivious grin. She had an indefinable hairstyle, a swag of thick blond dazzle that seemed always in motion, falling in her eyes, getting caught in her mouth. Venice spoke in a husky growl, with a deep, filthy laugh.
Venice was no stranger to flirtation; she was practically no stranger to anyone. She smoldered, even at breakfast. Venice - at times literally - enjoyed a love affair with Manhattan. — Paul Rudnick

I'm glad you're gay," she said solemnly, "because that way, if I can't have you, no one can."
"Um, Rocher," I mentioned, "like, a dude could have him."
This had never occurred to Rocher because she'd thought that Jate being gay translated as, "I love Rocher Bargemueller so much but I don't deserve her so I'll never have sex again." The concept of Jate with a guy was fresh turf and Rocher regarded him with an especially deranged sparkle in her eyes.
"I could be a dude," she said. — Paul Rudnick

At some point you just have to let go ... knowing full well you might look back in a couple years and be embarrassed by the finished product. But that's life. And like I said before, if I were to strive for perfection I would never get anything done. — Elizabeth Rudnick

Rocher was on the floor, crawling on her stomach toward Jate's feet. "I love you ... ," she kept repeating, in a demonic whisper. "I have to show you ... my butt. — Paul Rudnick

But, as many thought whenever they saw the graceful figure soaring through the air, it took a great hero and a terrible villain to make it all come about. And her name was Maleficent. — Elizabeth Rudnick

Have you ever been to a picnic? And someone blows up a balloon, and everyone starts tossing it around, and it's always just about to touch the ground, but someone always gets there just in time to tap it back up? That balloon, that's God, the very best in all of us, the kindness, the heavy petting, Funny Girl! ... Evil bores me. It's just one note. It doesn't sing! Oh, of course life sucks! It always will. So why not make the most of it? — Paul Rudnick

Most convicted felons are just people who were not taken to museums or Broadway musicals as children. — Paul Rudnick

I am not! said the guy's girlfriend, who was wearing a very short skirt, very high heels and the kind of complicated hairstyle that looks like it needs blueprints and a construction crew. — Paul Rudnick

Love... It only serves to make one weak... — Elizabeth Rudnick

I just saw Titanic, which is a $200 million film about a real-life disaster at sea, but according to Hollywood Logic, none of the actual passengers was interesting enough, so the writer-director had to invent a Romeo and Juliet-style fictional couple to heat up the catastrophe. This seems a tiny bit like giving Anne Frank a wacky best friend, to perk up that attic. — Paul Rudnick

I work sometimes from outlines, which are immediately abandoned. Sometimes, when I'm trying to find the characters, I'll sketch things out a bit. Sometimes, outlines help me aim a little bit, but I tend to find it's usually much more interesting, especially with the first draft, to spew it onto the page. I used to get very nervous that, if I write this first rough draft and I die that night, whoever finds it might think that I thought it was good. For me, it's much more important to get some general shape onto the page and later take all the time I need to refine it, fix it, and rewrite it. — Paul Rudnick

Time to start getting more sleep. This beautiful physique needs royal treatment. — Elizabeth Rudnick

Paul Rudnick is a champion of truth (and love and great wicked humor) whom we ignore at our peril. — David Sedaris

Fine, I'll admit it, I've read all of the books in the trilogy, which have sold more copies than there are people in the world because a lot of girls have hoarded multiple copies of each book and hidden the backup copies under their beds or in their lockers or in hollow trees, in case there's a nuclear holocaust. — Paul Rudnick

In so many YA books the heroine, who's just a regular girl, has to choose between two dreamboats who are both, for no particular reason, madly in love with her, which is probably why these books are labeled fiction. — Paul Rudnick

State your name."
"Venice Huber."
"Occupation?"
"Well, it's hard to say. I don't model, land of the seventeen bimbos. I don't act - after all, isn't an actress just a model who won't shut up? Let's say, oh - homemaker. Could you die? — Paul Rudnick

Against the odds, the Beast had shown her true beauty. He had shown her it was okay to feel lost and made her realize how desperately she had wanted to be found. She had learned that things were not always what they seemed, that people could surprise you. He had given her the one thing she had always longed for - something more. — Elizabeth Rudnick

Jincy Willett, Sam Lipsyte, Flannery O'Connor, and George Saunders. Oh, and I love Paul Rudnick in The New Yorker. — Pamela Paul

Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials. It's a matter of doing everything you can to avoid writing, until it is about four in the morning and you reach the point where you have to write. — Paul Rudnick

There was a cable-TV program that documented how Peeps are made, and it showed unlimited hordes of Peeps bouncing merrily down a conveyor belt, right toward the camera. I came. — Paul Rudnick

Back in Paris," he said, "I knew a girl who was so different, so daring, so ahead of her time that people mocked her until the day they found themselves imitating her. Do you know what she used to say?"
Belle shook her head.
She used to say, 'The people who talk behind your back are destined to stay there.'" Maurice paused for a moment, letting the worlds sink in. Then he added. "Behind your back. Never to catch up. — Elizabeth Rudnick

I love [my parents], but what if I could really talk to them? I mean, what if they had some answers? Or would that just be too weird? — Paul Rudnick

And when I'm feeling glum, because Gregory's away of because my daughter's just hurled her full glass of milk at my head, or just because time is passing, I like to scroll through the annual East Trawley High School online newsletter, which gets mass-emailed by Shanice Morain, who's on her second marriage and who cohosts her own Christian Soul-Support and Teen Prayer Variety Hour on local TV and who's just been appointed our class secretary. In the current Alumni Notes section I read that Katelynn Streedmore has just been named the head dietitian at the Jamesburg Assisted Care Facility, that Cal Malstrup and his wife Chelsea Marie have just welcomed their fifth bundle of joy, whom they've christened Blake-Jorlinda Malstrup, and that Becky Randle is still the Queen of England. — Paul Rudnick

My compulsive thoughts aren't even thoughts, they're absolute certainties and obeying them isn't a choice. — Paul Rudnick

Wait," I said. "so you're saying that you proposed to me because I'm a mess and I'm a person and because we need each other, while Rebecca was - something else? I get it, I follow you, but I'm also thinking, is the bullshit getting a little deep in here?"
"Yes, it is. You've caught me. And so fine, I will come clean, and I will tell you the absolutely true and naked reason why I want to marry you and only you, and not Rebecca."
"Why?"
"Because when I'm with you, I'm the pretty one. — Paul Rudnick

From the other side of the hill, two enormous black wings appeared through the mist. Then a pair of sharp, twisted horns. Slowly, Maleficent rose into the air, looking like a creature from hell. Behind her, there was only mist. No army of her own. No faeries or creatures. Just Maleficent. — Elizabeth Rudnick

Faeries can be quite mean if they are provoked. — Elizabeth Rudnick

We find comfort in routine and in the warmth of our own living rooms. — Elizabeth Rudnick

Ice cream is just a Band-Aid. Pain is still there when you wake up. — Elizabeth Rudnick

Most gay bashers will be wearing what gay people had on four years earlier - only in polyester with a Penney's label. — Paul Rudnick

Sometimes I think that we should send all of the Killer Mediums to Afghanistan because al-Qaeda wouldn't stand a chance. — Paul Rudnick

I'm here," I continued, "to guide you into the light of truth, decency and perhaps pants. — Paul Rudnick

I want to talk WITH someone, not be talked at BY someone. — Elizabeth Rudnick

As a writer, I need an enormous amount of time alone. Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials. It's a matter of doing everything you can to avoid writing, until it is about four in the morning and you reach the point where you have to write. Having anybody watching that or attempting to share it with me would be grisly. — Paul Rudnick

You're his lobster. Or swan, Or penguin. The Spock to his Kirk — Elizabeth Rudnick

Friends are the glue that keep us all here. Without them, who would drive you to school or skip class with you when you need to pick up a new pair of sneaks because you stepped in dog crap on the way onto campus? Boy or girl, underclassman or upperclassman, we all need our friends
just like the cheesy songs tell us. — Elizabeth Rudnick

I will not ask you for forgiveness. What I have done is unforgivable. I was so lost in hatred and revenge. I never dreamed that I could love you so much. You stole what was left of my heart. And now I've lost you forever. — Elizabeth Rudnick

A person's bathroom, I believe, is the only three-dimensional expression of their soul. — Paul Rudnick

And so I continue in borderline poverty, save for my one indulgence, no, my single absolute necessity: I take cabs. Yes, on occasion, when I wish to see what people with unpleasant skin conditions are wearing, I do take the subway. I have never, I am proud to say, taken the bus, because people who take the bus have given up. — Paul Rudnick

The only thing I have ever been asked [by a pollster] was the age at which I first indulged in oral sex (which, since it was a Yale Daily News poll, meant kissing). — Paul Rudnick

Olaf was a genius. This, she realized, watching the snowman struggle, was love. Olaf had been willing to put himself in danger because he didn't want to see her get hurt. Love wasn't the canned romantic declarations. That was nothing but fluff. That was what Hans had thrown at her and what she had mistaken for love. Pure, true love was what Olaf was showing her right now - sacrifice. — Elizabeth Rudnick

Oh my God. I love rich people. And royalty are the best because they're rich people who can't be fires. — Paul Rudnick

No one under the age of eighteen needs a cell phone unless they're a surgeon, a drug dealer, or a prostitute. — Paul Rudnick