Gina Barreca Quotes

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 ~ Gina Barreca

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

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. ~ Gina Barreca

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. ~ Gina Barreca

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. ~ Gina Barreca

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?' ~ Gina Barreca

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. ~ Gina Barreca

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. ~ Gina Barreca

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. ~ Gina Barreca

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

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

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. ~ Gina Barreca

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? ~ Gina Barreca

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

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. ~ Gina Barreca

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

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

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. ~ Gina Barreca

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. ~ Gina Barreca

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. ~ Gina Barreca

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

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. ~ Gina Barreca

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. ~ Gina Barreca

Like love, breakfast is best when made at home. ~ Gina Barreca

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

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. ~ Gina Barreca

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. ~ Gina Barreca

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. ~ Gina Barreca

My mother thinks Mick Jagger is a foreign car. ~ Gina Barreca

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. ~ Gina Barreca

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

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. ~ Gina Barreca

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

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? ~ Gina Barreca

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

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. ~ Gina Barreca

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. ~ Gina Barreca

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 ... ~ Gina Barreca

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. ~ Gina Barreca

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

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

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

The '60s had edge; the '70s had embroidery. ~ Gina Barreca

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

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

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

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. ~ Gina Barreca

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. ~ Gina Barreca

Being half Jewish, we grew up with Christmas trees but had Jewish ornaments. ~ Gina Rodriguez

Faithful are the wounds of a friend ~ Gina Holmes

Nature vs. Nurture? The Creator created us and knew us before we were in the womb, and He continues to create us throughout our lives. ~ Gina Turner

Any first-generation technology will. But we are looking at carbon the same way we look at every pollutant under the Clean Air Act; we look for the new technologies that are available. We recognize that these power plants are going to be around for decades. ~ Gina McCarthy

I started salsa dancing with a few different companies and started touring the country. It was fantastic, but I realized that I really wanted to talk every time we were performing. That's a problem because when you're dancing, if you stop to talk, that's not really cool to the other dancers. ~ Gina Rodriguez

Knock-knock." Gina poked her head in the door.
"Come on in," Jones said. "We've got all our clothes on for a change. Oh, wait, it's you who gets it on in the - "
"Okay," Gina said. "Am I ever going to live this down?"
"Eventually," Molly said. "But Max singing you old Elvis songs over the walkie-talkie? Honey, that's going to be impossible to kill."
"I think it's sweet," Jones told her.
"The singing or the kitchen tabling?" she asked.
"Both," he said. "Seriously, Gina. He's all right. ~ Suzanne Brockmann

Gina sat with the extremely quiet Tanberk on one side and Rebecca ~ Darcie Boleyn

There is a host of angels surrounding you, Rebecca. Not figuratively. Literally. With wings spread far to encompass you, protect you with their Light. Remember that they are with you - see them with your heart and soul - whenever you are forced to engage in battle with forces that seek and have become, through their own will, evil. ~ Gina Marinello-Sweeney

It suddenly occurred to both Driggs and Lex, in that very same instant, that neither of them wanted anything more in the world than to tear off every single piece of each other's clothes and make wild, passionate, messy adolescent love under the radiant glow of the full moon.
Their chests rose and fell. A few seconds passed.
"I'm going to sleep," Driggs panted, clambering off the roof.
"Me too," Lex huffed, right behind him.
And without another word they fled to their rooms, slammed the doors, and threw themselves into bed, where they both spent the next five hours dazedly contemplating their respective ceilings. ~ Gina Damico

French cinema allows women to look ... a certain way and be talented at the same time. ~ Gina Bellman

If coal wants a place in a carbon-constrained future, they have to look at technology like this. And we think that our rule can help stimulate technology, growth, and innovation, bring those costs down, and allow coal a more stable opportunity to continue to be invested in. ~ Gina McCarthy

When you fight someone, you share the experience with that one person, and you're never going to have that experience with someone else-even in another fight. ~ Gina Carano

Actresses are nightmares. I don't hang out with any of them. That's a problem with my profession. I try not to be like an actress. ~ Gina Gershon

What a surprise it is to discover that you have never needed to strive to survive and be happy after all. Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, who discovered that she always had the means for going home, you already have what you need to be happy and safe. You have never really left Home. However, if you don't believe you already have what you need to be happy and safe, it is as if it isn't true: If we don't know the ruby slippers will take us home, it's like not having them. The ego keeps us from seeing the truth about those ruby slippers- it keeps us from seeing the truth about life. Home is right here, right now, but we may not realize it and there for not experience Home, or Essence as much as we might. ~ Gina Lake

When consumers do not take full advantage of efficiency gains, it is because they are weighing other factors that influence their decision making. When the federal government arbitrarily places one of those factors over others, it makes consumers worse off. ~ Gina McCarthy

I took part in two 'Leverage' conventions. Fans fly in from as far as Russia and Australia. It's expensive to attend. ~ Gina Bellman

Follow your heart. Then root its longing with the facts. ~ Gina Greenlee

I usually just have one cat. It is difficult, but I have my one cat that he'll travel with me if it's appropriate, if I'm not going overseas. ~ Gina Gershon

I was a salsa dancer for the majority of my life, from, like, 7 to 17, and did the World Salsa Congresses. I realized that I wanted to continue obviously to be a performer. But in my household, being an actor and jumping into acting is not really accepted. ~ Gina Rodriguez

Go for it. It will make a great story. ~ Gina Greenlee

That's what you asked him?"
"Yeah, why?" Gina scrunched her face with confusion.
"I thought you were going to say something juicy."
"Like what?"
"I don't know, like if he would be your sex slave or something like that."
"Kelly! Why would I ask him that?"
"He's a hot guy, you're a hot girl. We're in a super romantic castle on the coast." Kelly waved her hand around the room for emphasis. "Why the hell not generate some heat in between these cold stone walls? ~ Lisa Carlisle

The college bookstore was a splash of life, culture, and society. As a psychology student, I often found myself intrigued by the behavior, ways of thinking and feeling, and general schemata of others, and this was the perfect spot to engage my senses.
Other times, I was just annoyed. ~ Gina Marinello-Sweeney

Not surprisingly, there is a cultural divide between American and British actors regarding the self-promotion associated with new media. ~ Gina Bellman

The notion of the perfect time is more than myth. It's the ultimate self-delusion. ~ Gina Greenlee

I think my father is nearly perfect. I think he's quite handsome, except a bit fat. ~ Gina Rinehart

So here's the deal: You will sleep in separate bedrooms. You will leave your doors open at all times. You will keep the public displays of affection to a minimum. You will attempt to dismantle any of my surveillance equipment, which, I remind you, covers nearly every room of this house. And if I hear any article of clothing being unzipped, unstrapped, unhooked, or unbuckled, you will lose the body part that it corresponds to. Understand?
Lex and Driggs looked at each other, then nodded, defeated. ~ Gina Damico

Forget black and white and try on gray. In hair color, wardrobe or life choices, it may feel more enlivening than you imagine. ~ Gina Greenlee

For a moment, perhaps an hour, they would wait, wait for something, and when that waiting was over, it was simply dismissed, goodbyes stated, reading materials closed, a momentary pause in the day that did not hold up to whatever came next.
Waiting was often a resented gift, imparted to those who accepted it grudgingly in the hopes that something better would come along when the gift was tossed aside, boxed away for the next recipient. ~ Gina Marinello-Sweeney

My best attribute is knowing when not to answer stupid questions. ~ Gina Gershon

My instinct is probably one of the strongest assets I've got, workwise. ~ Gina McKee

Danes, Norse... all were from the northlands in the eyes of her people. To their fright-frozen minds, Hakan was another of the dreaded Norse, sweeping over the land like a plague and leaving little in the wake. But summer had yielded a different crop for her: not all Norse were vicious raiders out for death and plunder.
Hakan braced one foot on a rock. "And now the Norse wolf brings you safely home."...
"Aye," she said. ~ Gina Conkle

You need nothing more than the experience you are having right now. It is enough. It is plenty. It is perfect just as it is. It was designed for you, given to you for your experience. All you have to do, and all you have ever had to do is accept this gift. Take it and let it in. Let yourself experience the present moment just as it is. It doesn't get any better than this. This is the simple truth the ego refuses to accept, and it will suffer as long as that is the case. ~ Gina Lake

I do what I like now. I just don't have time for it all. ~ Gina Lollobrigida

Nothing can change the past, including thought. However, dwelling on thoughts about the past does change our experience of the Now. When we drag the past into the present, everything else that belongs to the Now is marginalized and overlooked. All we see is the past or, more accurately, our story about it. All we can ever have of the past is our story about it, and that story is very unsatisfying. Our stories about the past don't feed our soul like the Now does. And worse, any story is usually a sad tale that keeps us caught up in negative feelings, and then those feelings become our current experience of life. ~ Gina Lake

Fans believe they have a relationship with you, either through your TV character or, more reasonably, through the tweets you may have exchanged. In a way, you have gotten to know them. You learn about people's kids, families, pets. ~ Gina Bellman

How wonderful it must be, I thought, to be able to just spread your wings whenever you like without someone following you around trying to swat you out of the sky. ~ Gina Holmes