Gina Barreca Quotes

A stark sense of isolation encloses anyone who looks outward for validation.

Of course, motivating yourself has little to do with energy - and everything to do with decisions.
Choosing to do something, especially if it seems difficult, might be hard. You need to decide whether the task is worth the effort.

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.

My therapist has helped me learn to understand that if you don't unpack your own emotional baggage it's no longer baggage--it's deadweight.

Like love, breakfast is best when made at home.

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.

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?

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.

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

More than anything else, I wanted not to be alone - yet all my actions guaranteed I'd be lonely. Like wearing a vest of explosives when you're coming in for a hug, insatiable need is a form of sabotage.

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

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.

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

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.

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 ...

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.

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.

Power is the ability to persuade stupid people to do intelligent things and intelligent people to do stupid things. This is why power is dangerous.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Want to guess what comes up when I Google "Woman discovers"? It's not "new galaxy." It's "a body in her trunk" or "the unthinkable in her attic." According to my computer search, other big discoveries by women include "her co-worker is her birth mom," "a Renaissance painting in her kitchen," and "her new home was once a meth lab." Hey, at least that one contains the word "lab.

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

The '60s had edge; the '70s had embroidery.

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

My mother thinks Mick Jagger is a foreign car.

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

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

I've been married for a long time and there are days when I still wonder, 'Excuse me, but who is this man?

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?'

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.

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?

When you enter your next relationship, you become the person you split up with.

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

As a writer, I roll around in words the way cats roll around in catnip.

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

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

Ever look at a sink full of dishes and think, "Why don't I just bury these in the backyard?

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.

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.

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

I will count my blessings when I am in the doldrums, count to ten when I am quarrelsome, and count on my friends when I need a laugh.

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.

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.