Emily Giffin Quotes

I've always been intrigued by the power of secrets. When is it justifiable to keep them from the ones we love? And does keeping them irrevocably change who we are? ~ Emily Giffin

So there the two of us were. Frozen in time, living in the moment, focused only on our immediate desires. Which of course included sex. Lots and lots of it. ~ Emily Giffin

I'll remind you of that someday , Maura says. when you're married to a man who once looked into your eyes and promised to forsake all others. I'll remind of that after you've just had his baby and you have postpartum depression and feel as fat as cow and you are pumping milk into a plastic containers in the middle of the night while he's running around with some twenty-two-years old named Lissette. I'll remind you of that.
Maura to Jess. ~ Emily Giffin

let those surface issues go, to value content over form. ~ Emily Giffin

Inevitably I draw on my own relationships when I write, so if I'm writing about a fight between a husband and his wife, of course I'm going to think about a recent fight with my husband. Or if I'm writing about sisters, of course I'm going to think about my sister. ~ Emily Giffin

Blurring the line between friendship and attraction was a surefire to lose a friend. ~ Emily Giffin

I think my sister Daphne's obsession with having children has a lot to do with wanting to erase the pain my mother caused. On one level, Daphne's approach makes more sense. Yet the thought of a redo is not only unappealing, but terrifying. I don't want that kind of power over anyone. I don't want to be something that someone has to overcome. After all, I think everyone would agree that it's far worse to be a fucked-up mother than it is to have one. ~ Emily Giffin

I think to myself that when you're in love, sometimes you have to swallow your pride, and sometimes you have to fight to keep your pride. It's a balance. But when the relationship is right, you find that balance. ~ Emily Giffin

Being around people didn't make me uneasy, I just preferred to be alone most of the time. ~ Emily Giffin

parents might not be keen on the idea of seeing each other, but then essentially ~ Emily Giffin

When you are in a relationship, you are aware that it might end. You might grow apart, find someone else, simply fall out of love. But a friendship isn't a zero-sum game, and as such, you assume that it will last forever, especially an old friendship. You take its permanence for grandted, whuch might be the very thing so dear about it. ~ Emily Giffin

You know in your heart when you're doing the right thing and when you're not. And you just have to do everything you can to stay the course. ~ Emily Giffin

I decided that giving a girl a ring when you're not in a serious relationship is sort of like giving a guy a blow job when you have no real feelings for him. It makes everything feel a little cheap.It cheapens the giver and the recipient. ~ Emily Giffin

It occurs to me that as different as we are in our behavior and decisions, our most basic, knee-jerk emotional reactions to really big things are often remarkably similar. And it is in these moments that I am most grateful for my sister. ~ Emily Giffin

And although one broken heart doesn't make me an expert in the subject, I believe you need both things - time and an emotional replacement - to fully mend one. ~ Emily Giffin

Minigolf," she said with stone seriousness, "is a metaphor for life."
I smiled and said, "Oh, really?"
"Yes. I mean, think about it….Do you take it seriously? Too seriously? Do you enjoy it? Do you keep careful score? Do you get upset when you lose? Do you cheat? And if you do cheat, how do you react when you're busted? Are you sheepish? Sorry? Do you do it again? ~ Emily Giffin

I'm going to keep seeing him as much as I can. We'll see what happens," I say, realizing that just "seeing what happens" is my version of "going for it. ~ Emily Giffin

Luck is buying a lottery ticket along with your Yoo-hoo and striking it rich. Nothing about my life is lucky- it is all about hard work, it is all uphill struggle. ~ Emily Giffin

I close my eyes, wondering whether we are ever truly blindsided by misfortune. Or, somehow, somewhere, in the form of empathy or worry or a premonition deep within ourselves, do we feel it coming? ~ Emily Giffin

It was the same night I gave myself to him completely, knowing that I would belong to him for as long as he wanted to keep me. And, as it turned out, even longer than that. ~ Emily Giffin

Whats not to love is hardly a reason to love. And the catch of your life is not the same thing as the love of your life. Be careful of that subtle but rather crucial distinction. ~ Emily Giffin

Elated.) And anytime he had to question someone's loyalty. ~ Emily Giffin

The feeling I have reminds me of New Year's Eve, when the countdown is coming and I'm not quite sure whether to grab my camera or just live in the moment. Usually I grab the camera and later regret it when the picture doesn't turn out. Then I feel enormously let down and think to myself that the night would have been more fun if it didn't mean quite so much, if I weren't forced to analyze where I've been and where I'm going. ~ Emily Giffin

Wasn't so much that I didn't have faith in my team, but that I maintained the truest fans always reverted to a doomsday position in the same way that parents always worried about tragedy befalling their children. ~ Emily Giffin

Someday being with Dex will be a distant memory. This fact makes me sad too. Its the initial stages of grief that seem to be worst but in some ways, Its sadder as time goes by and you consider how much they're missed in your life. ~ Emily Giffin

It was a mistake. You didn't try to hurt anyone. ~ Emily Giffin

Anything worthwhile is tough. ~ Emily Giffin

[The] maid of honor - the unambiguous, grown-up equivalent of wearing best friend necklaces. ~ Emily Giffin

Whether you CAN forgive and whether you SHOULD trust. ~ Emily Giffin

Maybe the thing to do after you roll the dice-and lose-is simply pick them up and roll them again. ~ Emily Giffin

Things certainly aren't the way you imagine them when you're a kid and dreaming big dreams about what your life as a grown-up will look like. ~ Emily Giffin

I want to make it official, i want to make it forever ~ Emily Giffin

Really-nothing is unforgivable if you truly love someone. ~ Emily Giffin

Anxiety was not an emotion I could ever remember feeling when I went out in New York, and I wondered why tonight felt so different. Maybe it was because I no longer had a boyfriend or fiance. I suddenly recognized that there was safety in having someone, as well as a lack of pressure to shine. Ironically, this had cultivated a certain free-spiritedness that had, in turn, allowed me to be the life of the party and hoard the affection of additional men ... But that had all changed. I didn't have a boyfriend, a perfect figure, or alcohol-induced outrageousness to fall back on. ~ Emily Giffin

For true downtime, I enjoy going for light runs, having drinks with friends and going to the movies with my husband. ~ Emily Giffin

I have always been drawn to coming-of-age stories and books and movies featuring compelling young characters. ~ Emily Giffin

It's heartbreaking when you love a book that fails. And it always
seems to happen to the nicest authors. ~ Emily Giffin

What appeals to you the most is the very thing that will drive you crazy ~ Emily Giffin

I don't really know why I went to law school. ~ Emily Giffin

We both have a lot of growing-up to do ... A lot of the world to see & figure out on our own.
Leo ~ Emily Giffin

The surprise element of her betrayal was what burned me the most. The fact that I never saw it coming. ~ Emily Giffin

Because Marian was the love of my life. For a long time. And that's the kind of information you share when you're young and stupid and hoping that you're in something that is going to be even bigger and better than what you once lost. It's the kind of shit you waste your time thinking about. Lemme tell you
it does no good. ~ Emily Giffin

I spend the rest of the afternoon trying to explain to Zoe one of the very saddest notions in love and life: sometimes the timing is wrong
and sometimes you realize the heart of the matter way to late in the game. ~ Emily Giffin

It's simply human nature to have an occasional, fleeting interest in someone whom you once loved. ~ Emily Giffin

We are in love and meant to be together. ~ Emily Giffin

There is always something comforting about knowing that you are not alone. That
other people feel the way you do. That you are a bit screwed up, but still normal. ~ Emily Giffin

Did I ever stop loving him the way you're supposed to stop loving everyone but the one you're with? ~ Emily Giffin

I think of how emotions seem so magnified when you're a child.
Joy is more all-encompassing, disappointments more crushing, hope more
palpable. ~ Emily Giffin

You can never be too sure when it comes to things that matter most ~ Emily Giffin

I had seen the light, come to believe that a wedding should be about a feeling between two people, not a show for the masses ... It was a magical, romantic evening, and although I occasionally wish I had worn a slightly fancier dress, and that Nick and I had danced on our wedding night, I have no real regrets about the way we chose to do things. ~ Emily Giffin

It's always a good feeling when you can produce just the right one-liner to prove your point so tidily. ~ Emily Giffin

But at the time, I honestly didn't think I was hurting anyone, not even myself. I didn't think much at all, in fact. Yes, I was gorgeous and lucky in love, but I truly believed that I was also a decent person who deserved her good fortune. ~ Emily Giffin

It always takes two. For relationships to work, for them to break apart, for them to be fixed. ~ Emily Giffin

I looked at my friend, overwhelmed with confusion. Unsure of what April should do. What I should do. What a strong woman would do. In fact, the only thing that I am certain of is that there are no easy answers, and that anyone who says there are has never been in our shoes. ~ Emily Giffin

Get a load of this one ... I heard that she actually thought paparazzi was the last name of one particular Italian photographer. Apparently she said something like, 'Who is this Paparazzi guy and why didn't they arrest him years ago after he killed Princess Diana? ~ Emily Giffin

It occurs to me that she is not unique--that all women compare lives. We are aware of whose husband works more, who helps more around the house, who makes more money, who is having more sex. We compare our children, taking note of who is sleeping through the night, eating their vegetables, minding their manners, getting into the right schools. We know who keeps the best house, throws the best parties, cooks the best meals, has the best tennis game. We know who among us is the smartest, has the fewest lines around her eyes, has the best figure--whether naturally or artificially. We are aware of who works full-time, who stays at home with the kids, who manages to do it all and make it look easy, who shops and lunches while the nanny does it all. We digest it all and then discuss with our friends. Comparing and then confiding; it is what women do.
The difference, I think, lies in why we do it. Are we doing it to gauge our own life and reassure ourselves that we fall within the realm of normal? Or are we being competitive, relishing others' shortcomings so that we can win, if only by default? ~ Emily Giffin

Anger was something I could control. I could settle into an easy rhythm of blame
and hate. Focus my energy on something other than the ache in my heart. ~ Emily Giffin

My work has often been described as "chick lit" and for the most part the term doesn't bother me. I think it simply signals to readers that the book is about women, written for women (although many men enjoy my books), about issues that concern women (relationships, careers, etc.) The only thing that bothers me is when the label is used disparagingly, to imply that all chick lit is, by definition, superficial, beach-read fluff because I believe that this is akin to saying that all women are devoid of substance and the issues that concern us, are fundamentally trivial ones. And I take issue with that. ~ Emily Giffin

A son is a son 'til he gets a wife, but a daughter is a daughter all her life. ~ Emily Giffin

Yet here we are, two children and a broken promise later, standing before each other, just the way we stood that day at the alter, with equal parts love and hope. And once again, I close my eyes, ready to take a leap of faith, ready for the long, hard road ahead. I have no idea how it's going to turn out, but then again, I never really did. ~ Emily Giffin

She knows in her heart that it doesn't work like this. That misfortune doesn't give you the right to disregard others, ignore the rules, tell lies and half-truths. ~ Emily Giffin

Evident in every small act of kindness, it was love as a verb. Love that made me feel more complete than I had ever felt in my glamorous, Jimmy Choo filled past. ~ Emily Giffin

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that life is fast. And it keeps speeding up. Sometimes I lose track of the season - or even the year. And we just have to make the best of it all. ~ Emily Giffin

I'm far from fat, but her using me as a sounding board on this topic is like me complaining to a blind woman that I have to wear contacts. ~ Emily Giffin

That although I love Nick, on most days I don't think he lassoed the moon ~ Emily Giffin

Songs and smells will bring you back to a moment in time more than anything else. It's amazing how much can be conjured with a few notes of a song or a solitary whiff of a room. A song you didn't even pay attention to at the time, a place that you didn't even know had a particular smell. ~ Emily Giffin

I think it's important to try to be present with whatever it is you're doing. And if you can't be present, take a break. ~ Emily Giffin

The whole "misery loves company"
thing never applies more than when you're breaking up. The thought that the
other person is doing fine is simply too much to bear. ~ Emily Giffin

Too often in our culture of BlackBerrys and cell phones, people are disengaged and disconnected and distracted from their immediate surroundings. ~ Emily Giffin

Reckless abandon and know that there will be someone ~ Emily Giffin

I try to write about real women, real people - in other words flawed characters. ~ Emily Giffin

I don't know. She was a sweet girl. As sweet as they come. I don't know why I didn't love her. It's something you can't really control. ~ Emily Giffin

His loyalty, so fierce and unwavering, makes my eyes water and heart ache. ~ Emily Giffin

People generally didn't cheat in good relationships. ~ Emily Giffin

Would they retreat or move forward? Could they do this thing they were on the verge of doing? Did they have it in them to make a wrong decision just because it felt right? ~ Emily Giffin

You can love someone you mistrust. ~ Emily Giffin

I think I have always had the misguided sense that worry and fear serve as an insurance policy of sorts. On a subconscious level, I subscribe to the notion that if you worry about something, it is somehow less likely to happen. Well, I am here to say that it doesn't work like that. The very thing you fear the most can still happen anyway. And when it does, you feel that much more cheated for having feared it in the first place. ~ Emily Giffin

And then there is our personal history. Memories only we share. Things not another living soul would understand. ~ Emily Giffin

I think the issue of female friendship really resonates well with women, ... So many women have a friend like Darcy or can relate to the feeling of being second-fiddle to a friend. ~ Emily Giffin

Love is seldom - almost never - an even proposition. Someone always
loves more. ~ Emily Giffin

As I've said many times, the only way to stay trim is to eat bacon. ~ Emily Giffin

I certainly never felt rejected because they had given me up. My parents knew nothing about my birth mother, yet always explained with certainty that she didn't "give me up" or "give me away" - she made a plan for me, the best one she could make under her circumstances, whatever those were. ~ Emily Giffin

Guilt is a supreme waste of time and energy. ~ Emily Giffin

I was in the fifth grade the first time I thought about turning thirty. My best friend Darcy and I came across a perpetual calendar in the back of the phone book, where you could look up any date in the future, and by using this little grid, determine what the day of the week would be. So we located our birthdays in the following year, mine in May and hers in September. I got Wednesday, a school night. She got a Friday. A small victory, but typical. Darcy was always the lucky one. Her skin tanned more quickly, her hair feathered more easily, and she didn't need braces. Her moonwalk was superior, as were her cart-wheels and her front handsprings (I couldn't handspring at all). She had a better sticker collection. More Michael Jackson pins. Forenze sweaters in turquoise, red, and peach (my mother allowed me none- said they were too trendy and expensive). And a pair of fifty-dollar Guess jeans with zippers at the ankles (ditto). Darcy had double-pierced ears and a sibling- even if it was just a brother, it was better than being an only child as I was.

But at least I was a few months older and she would never quite catch up. That's when I decided to check out my thirtieth birthday- in a year so far away that it sounded like science fiction. It fell on a Sunday, which meant that my dashing husband and I would secure a responsible baby-sitter for our two (possibly three) children on that Saturday evening, dine at a fancy French restaurant with cloth napkins, and stay out ~ Emily Giffin

Sure, we were friends who exchanged soulful glances, friends who slept in a bed filled with sexual tension, friends who found any excuse to touch, but I worried that we'd never take that perilous leap of faith toward becoming a real couple, a permanent team. ~ Emily Giffin

I review my three boyfriends, the three men I slept with in my twenties, searching for a common thread. Nothing. No consistent features, coloring, stature, personality. But one theme does emerge: they all picked me. And then dumped me. I played the passive role. Waiting for Hunter and then settling for Joey. Waiting to feel more for Nate. Then waiting to feel less. Waiting for Alec to go away and leave me in peace. And now Dex. My number four. And I am still waiting. For all of this to blow over. For his September wedding. For someone who gives me that tingly feeling as I watch him sleeping in ... ~ Emily Giffin

Nothing about my life is lucky - it's all about hard work, it is all an uphill struggle. ~ Emily Giffin

We are one of those couples i used to watch, thinking to myself that I'd never be on the inside of something so special. I remember reassuring myself that it probably looked nicer than it actually was, I am happy to be wrong about that. ~ Emily Giffin

Surely he knows we are all watching. That I am watching. It is always that way when you are in a group and someone decides to go for a swim or walk to the water. The ocean is a giant stage. It is natural that the others watch, if only for a moment. ~ Emily Giffin

He threw in the towel before we were tested. Maybe because he didn't want to be tested. Maybe because he assumed we would fail. Maybe because, at the time, he just didn't love me enough. ~ Emily Giffin

But i am content to live in the moment, and allow myself the daily pleasure of obsessing. nothing lasts forever, i tell myself. especially the good stuff. although typically you aren't faced with a hard deadline ~ Emily Giffin

Everyone has a messed-up family to one extent or another but we all have an obligation to rise above it. Live in the present and stop sniveling about the past. ~ Emily Giffin

Although too much time has gone by to miss her, I feel regret that I didn't maintain our friendship. Even if we no longer have much in common, we would have always had the past, which, in some ways, is just as important as the present or future. ~ Emily Giffin

After all, there is nothing like a mother telling you that you're making a bad decision to convince you that what you are doing is the absolute best course of action. ~ Emily Giffin

Throw in the intensity of emotions that come with that bittersweet summer sandwiched between high school graduation and the rest of your life ... ~ Emily Giffin

Ellen laughs, as we've both made fun of those nauseating Facebook posts that use a religious concept to justify their thinly veiled bragging. ~ Emily Giffin

In days that follow, I discover that anger is easier to handle than grief. ~ Emily Giffin

Whenever you make a big decision in life, at least any decision
where you have a viable alternative, there is an inevitable uneasy aftermath.
Anxiety is merely a sign that you're taking something seriously. ~ Emily Giffin

What's the point of being sad?" he says. "We're here now. ~ Emily Giffin

I miss us, too. I always have, and probably always will ~ Emily Giffin