Jenny Offill Quotes

• And that phrase - 'sleeping like a baby.' Some blonde said it blithely on the subway the other day. I wanted to lie down next to her and scream for five hours in her ear.

  Jenny Offill

  Baby, Lying, Sleep

  Jenny Offill (2014). “Dept. of Speculation”, p.22, Vintage

  44 Copy quote

• But now it seems possible that the truth about getting older is that there are fewer and fewer things to make fun of until finally there is nothing you are sure you will never be.

  Jenny Offill

  Fun, Getting Older, Fewer

  Jenny Offill (2014). “Dept. of Speculation”, p.77, Granta Books

  15 Copy quote

• One of the odd things about being a writer is that you never reach a point of certainty, a point of mastery where you can say, Right. Now I understand how this is done.

  Jenny Offill

  Odd Things, Mastery, Done

  10 Copy quote

• The Buddhists say there are 121 states of consciousness. Of these, only three involve misery or suffering. Most of us spend our time moving back and forth between these three.

  Jenny Offill

  Buddhist, Moving, Suffering

  Jenny Offill (2014). “Dept. of Speculation”, p.13, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

• You think you want the blue skies, the open road, but really you want the tunnel, you want to know how the story ends.

  Jenny Offill

  Thinking, Tunnels, Blue

  17 Copy quote

• My plan was to never get married. I was going to be an art monster instead. Women almost never become art monsters because art monsters only concern themselves with art, never mundane things. Nabokov didn't even fold his own umbrella. Vera licked his stamps for him.

  Jenny Offill

  Art, Monsters, Married

  Jenny Offill (2014). “Dept. of Speculation”, p.11, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

• Also she signed away the right to self-destruct years ago. The fine print on the birth certificate, her friends call it.

  Jenny Offill

  Self, Years, Birth

  Jenny Offill (2014). “Dept. of Speculation”, p.79, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

• The only love that feels like love is the doomed kind. (Fun fact.)

  Jenny Offill

  Fun, Love Is, Like Love

  4 Copy quote

• The reason to have a home is to keep certain people in and everyone else out.

  Jenny Offill

  Home, People, Reason

  Jenny Offill (2014). “Dept. of Speculation”, p.18, Vintage

  6 Copy quote

• When God is a father, he is said to be elsewhere. When God is a mother, she is said to be everywhere.

  Jenny Offill

  Mother, Father, Said

  Jenny Offill (2014). “Dept. of Speculation”, p.49, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

• A thought experiment courtesy of the Stoics. If you are tired of everything you possess, imagine that you have lost all these things.

  Jenny Offill

  Tired, Imagine, Courtesy

  Jenny Offill (2014). “Dept. of Speculation”, p.45, Granta Books

  4 Copy quote

• Some women make it look so easy, the way they cast ambition off like an expensive coat that no longer fits.

  Jenny Offill

  Ambition, Looks, Coats

  Jenny Offill (2014). “Dept. of Speculation”, p.65, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

• To live in a city is to be forever flinching.

  Jenny Offill

  Cities, Forever

  Jenny Offill (2014). “Dept. of Speculation”, p.13, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

• For years, I kept a Post-it note above my desk. WORK NOT LOVE! was what it said. It seemed a sturdier kind of happiness.

  Jenny Offill

  Years, Kind, Notes

  Jenny Offill (2014). “Dept. of Speculation”, p.10, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

• My plan was to never get married. I was going to be an art monster instead.

  Jenny Offill

  Art, Monsters, Married

  Jenny Offill (2014). “Dept. of Speculation”, p.11, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

• These bits of poetry that stick to her like burrs.

  Jenny Offill

  Sticks, Burrs, Bits

  Jenny Offill (2014). “Dept. of Speculation”, p.78, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

• I had thought loving two people so much would straighten it.

  Jenny Offill

  Two, People

  Jenny Offill (2014). “Dept. of Speculation”, p.34, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

• A few nights later, I secretly hope that I might be a genius. Why else can no amount of sleeping pills fell my brain? But in the morning my daughter asks me what a cloud is and I cannot say.

  Jenny Offill

  Daughter, Morning, Sleep

  4 Copy quote

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