Oleanders Quotes

• I wondered why it had to be so poisonous. Oleanders could live through anything, they could stand heat, drought, neglect, and put out thousands of waxy blooms. So what did they need poison for? Couldn't they just be bitter? They weren't like rattlesnakes, they didn't even eat what they killed. The way she boiled it down, distilled it, like her hatred. Maybe it was a poison in the soil, something about L.A., the hatred, the callousness, something we didn't want to think about, that the plant concentrated in its tissues. Maybe it wasn't a source of poison, but just another victim.

  Janet Fitch

  Thinking, Hatred, Poison

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• Oleander time, she said. Lovers who kill each other now will blame it on the wind.

  Janet Fitch

  Wind, Lovers, Blame

  Janet Fitch (2013). “White Oleander”, p.7, Hachette UK

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• If you don't like what you see, stop looking.

  Nancy Lopez

  Aviation, Bodybuilding Motivation, Pilots And Flying

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• You have to let go of who you were, to become who you will be.

  Candace Bushnell

  Letting Go, Tv Shows, Letting You Go

  "Fictional character: Carrie Bradshaw". TV Series "Sex and the City" ("Anchors Away", 2002), www.imdb.com. 2002.

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• Don't attach yourself to anyone who shows you the least bit of attention because you're lonely. Lonliness is the human condition. No one is ever going to fill that space. The best thing you can do it know yourself... know what you want.

  Janet Fitch

  Lonely, Space, Attention

  "White Oleander". www.imdb.com. 2002.

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• The Santa Anas blew in hot from the desert, shriveling the last of the spring grass into whiskers of pale straw. Only the oleanders thrived, their delicate poisonous blooms, their dagger green leaves. We could not sleep in the hot dry nights, my mother and I.

  Janet Fitch

  Mother, Spring, Sleep

  Janet Fitch (2013). “White Oleander”, p.7, Hachette UK

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• Remember it all, every insult, every tear. Tattoo it on the inside of your mind. In life, knowledge of poisons is essential. I've told you, nobody becomes an artist unless they have to.

  Janet Fitch

  Tattoo, Artist, Mind

  Janet Fitch (2002). “White Oleander”, Large Print Press

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• Let me tell you a few things about regret...There is no end to it. You cannot find the beginning of the chain that brought us from there to here. Should you regret the whole chain, and the air in between, or each link separately as if you could uncouple them? Do you regret the beginning which ended so badly, or just the ending itself?

  Janet Fitch

  Regret, Air, Links

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• It was only natural to want to destroy something you could never have.

  Janet Fitch

  Want, Natural

  Janet Fitch (2002). “White Oleander”, Large Print Press

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• We strive for beauty and balance, the sensual over the sentimental.

  Janet Fitch

  Sensual, Balance, Sentimental

  Janet Fitch (2013). “White Oleander”, p.7, Hachette UK

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• There is nothing to be done. Just make sure nothing is wasted. Take notes. Remember it all, every insult, every tear. Tattoo it on the inside of your mind.

  Janet Finch

  Tattoo, Mind, Tears

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• Take my advice. Stay away from all broken people.

  Janet Fitch

  People, Broken, Advice

  Janet Fitch (2013). “White Oleander”, p.173, Hachette UK

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• Women always put men first. That's how everything got so screwed up.

  Janet Fitch

  Men, Firsts, Screwed Up

  Janet Fitch (2013). “White Oleander”, p.134, Hachette UK

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• What was the point in such loneliness among people. At least if you were by yourself, you had a good reason to be lonely.

  Janet Fitch

  Lonely, Loneliness, People

  Janet Fitch (2013). “White Oleander”, p.83, Hachette UK

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• I wish my life could be like that, knotted up so that even if something broke, the whole thing wouldn't come apart.

  Janet Fitch

  Wish, Broke, Knots

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• I nodded. A man's world. But what did it mean? That men whistled and stared and yelled things at you, and you had to take it, or you get raped or beat up? A man's world meant places men could go but not women. It meant they had more money,and didn't have kids, not the way women did, to look after every second. And it meant that women loved them more than they loved the women, that they could want something with all their hearts, and then not.

  Janet Fitch

  Mean, Kids, Heart

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• That was the thing about words, they were clear and specific-chair, eye, stone- but when you talked about feelings, words were too stiff, they were this and not that, they couldn't include all the meanings. In defining, they always left something out.

  Janet Fitch

  Eye, Feelings, Stones

  Janet Fitch (2013). “White Oleander”, p.185, Hachette UK

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• Now I wish she'd never broken any of her rules. I understood why she held to them so hard. Once you broke the first one, they all broke, one by one, like firecrackers exploding in your face in a parking lot on the Fourth of July.

  Janet Fitch

  July, Broken, Wish

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• Loneliness is the human condition. Cultivate it. The way it tunnels into you allows your soul room to grow.

  Janet Fitch

  Loneliness, Tunnels, Soul

  Janet Fitch (2002). “White Oleander”, Large Print Press

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• I hated labels anyway. People didn't fit in slots--prostitute, housewife, saint--like sorting the mail. We were so mutable, fluid with fear and desire, ideals and angles, changeable as water.

  Janet Fitch

  People, Water, Desire

  Janet Fitch (2013). “White Oleander”, p.88, Hachette UK

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• Isn't it funny.I'm enjoying my hatred so much more than i ever enjoyed love. Love is temperamental. Tiring. It makes demands. Love uses you, changes its mind. But hatred, now, that's something you can use. Sculpt. Wield. It's hard, or soft, however you need it. Love humiliates you, but Hatred cradles you.

  Janet Fitch

  Love Is, Hatred, Mind

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• Always learn poems by heart. They have to become the marrow in your bones. Like fluoride in the water, they'll make your soul impervious to the world's soft decay.

  Janet Fitch

  Heart, Water, Poetry

  Janet Fitch (2002). “White Oleander”, Large Print Press

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• I've told you, nobody becomes an artist unless they have to.

  Janet Fitch

  Artist

  Janet Fitch (2002). “White Oleander”, Large Print Press

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• Love humiliates you. Hatred cradles you.

  Michelle Pfeiffer

  Hatred, Cradle, Humiliate

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• The pearls weren't really white, they were a warm oyster beige, with little knots in between so if they broke, you only lost one. I wished my life could be like that, knotted up so that even if something broke, the whole thing wouldn't come apart.

  Janet Fitch

  Lost Ones, Oysters, White

  Janet Fitch (2002). “White Oleander”, Large Print Press

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