15 Quotes & Sayings By J Courtney Sullivan

J. Courtney Sullivan is the author of four works of fiction and a nonfiction book, including three novels and a memoir. Her first novel, The Last Letter from Your Lover, was a New York Times bestseller and won the PEN/Hemingway Award for First Fiction. Her most recent novel is The Third Hotel, which was named one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and Kirkus Reviews Read more

She is also the editor of two anthologies for young adults—The Miriam Webster Teen Book Award Winner: Best Books for Young Readers and Best New YA Authors—as well as co-editor of a women's anthology. J. Courtney Sullivan was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Brooklyn Heights, where she attended Stuyvesant High School and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College.

She now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her husband and two children.

1
These fucking women really piss me off, ' April said. 'Because instead of being elated by the thought of making their own happiness and chasing some crazy dream, all they want to do is narrow their options and do something safe. J. Courtney Sullivan
How could a person have and do all these stupid...
2
How could a person have and do all these stupid things--clip coupons and double lock the front door--and then one day just cease to exist? J. Courtney Sullivan
3
The girls said she was too cynical about love, but how could you not be? On the surface, relations between men and women were all soft kisses and white gowns and hand-holding. But underneath they were a scary, complicated, ugly mess, just waiting to rise to the surface. J. Courtney Sullivan
Someone could save your life without you ever knowing it....
4
Someone could save your life without you ever knowing it. It happened more than most people realized. J. Courtney Sullivan
With the Smithies, it was different. There was sometimes no...
5
With the Smithies, it was different. There was sometimes no telling where one of them began and the others left off. J. Courtney Sullivan
And anyway, once you allowed yourself to picture such a...
6
And anyway, once you allowed yourself to picture such a scenario, it couldn't happen. That was just the way life went. J. Courtney Sullivan
7
Every woman needs secrets, ' her mother said with a smile then, her eyes meeting Sally's in the rearview mirror. 'Remember that when you're old like me, pumpkin, because the world has a way of making a woman's life everyone else's business--you have to dig out a little place that's only yours. J. Courtney Sullivan
The moment a woman was born determined so much of...
8
The moment a woman was born determined so much of who she was allowed to become. J. Courtney Sullivan
9
Women leave their marriages when they can't take any more. Men leave when they find someone new. J. Courtney Sullivan
10
Now she saw that marriage was like being in a three-legged race with the same person for the rest of your life. Your hopes, your happiness, your luck, your moods, all yoked to his. J. Courtney Sullivan
11
She had learned over time that to know anything was bearable. It was secrecy that could not be borne. J. Courtney Sullivan
12
It was amazing that you did not become your grief entirely, and walk about leaking it everywhere. J. Courtney Sullivan
13
We don't always do the things our parents want us to do, but it is their mistake if they can't find a way to love us anyway. J. Courtney Sullivan
14
One of life's contradictions: how human beings were at once entirely resilient and impossibly fragile. One decision could stay with you forever, and yet you could live through almost anything. J. Courtney Sullivan