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  • Category: quotes

    • the girls

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on September 29, 2016

      I packed a few books for our multi-day roadtrip back to AZ, including Everything I Never Told You (different than I thought it was going to be, but I liked it) and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (I can’t even bring myself to finish it) but the best of the lot was The Girls by Emma Cline.

      Some of my favourites:

      “I waited to be told what was good about me. I wondered later if this was why there were so many more women than men at the ranch. All that time I had spent readying myself, the articles that taught me life was really just a waiting room until someone noticed you- the boys had spent that time becoming themselves.”

      “So much of desire, at that age, was a willful act. Trying so hard to slur the rough, disappointing edges of boys into the shape of someone we could love. We spoke of our desperate need for them with rote and familiar words, like we were reading lines from a play.”

      “How I loved to wring myself out that way, stoking my feelings until they were unbearable. I wanted all of life to feel that frantic and pressured with portent, so even colors and weather and tastes would be more saturated.”

      “When I was nine, I’d broken my wrist falling from a swing. The shocking crack, the blackout pain. But even then, even with my wrist swelling with a cuff of trapped blood, I insisted I was fine, that it was nothing, and my parents believed me right up until the doctor showed them the X-ray, the bones snapped clean.”

      “I saw how his face moved a little with concern for me, an acknowledgement, I thought, of how brave I was. Though I should have known that when men warn you to be careful, often they are warning you of the dark movie playing across their own brains. Some violent daydream prompting their guilty exhortations to ‘make it home safe.'”

       

      Posted in books, inspiration, quotes | 0 Comments | Tagged emma cline, novels, quotes, the girls, writing
    • dorothy parker

      Posted at 9:50 am by jasminedesirees, on June 9, 2016

      I have a 12 hour train ride to North Dakota on Saturday, so I’ve been looking for some new books to help pass the time.

      So far, I’m interested in this one or this one, but I also came across The Portable Dorothy Parker. It’s not available on Kindle, and the hard copy won’t arrive before I leave, but some of her quotes are too good not to share:

      “Razors pain you,
      Rivers are damp,
      Acids stain you,
      And drugs cause cramp.
      Guns aren’t lawful,
      Nooses give,
      Gas smells awful.
      You might as well live.”
      -Enough Rope

      “In youth, it was a way I had,
      To do my best to please.
      And change, with every passing lad
      To suit his theories.

      But now I know the things I know
      And do the things I do,
      And if you do not like me so,
      To hell, my love, with you.”

      “You can lead a horticulture, but you can’t make her think.”

      “If you wear a short enough skirt, the party will come to you.”

      “I don’t care what is written about me so long as it isn’t true.”

      “A hangover is the wrath of grapes.”

      “Three be the things I shall never attain:
      Envy, content, and sufficient champagne.”

      Posted in art, books, inspiration, loveliness, poetry, quotes | 0 Comments | Tagged authors, dorothy parker, quotes, writing
    • salt

      Posted at 8:16 am by jasminedesirees, on March 24, 2016

      I came across a poem by Nayirrah Waheed last weekend, and immediately set out to ready everything she had ever written. I ordered her book of poetry, Salt, and I can’t wait for it to get here.

      A few of my favourite lines:

      i have always been the woman of my dreams

      i am mine before i am ever anyone else’s

      my mother was my first country, the first place i ever lived

      what can i do when the night comes out and i break into stars

      stay is a sensitive word we wear who stayed and who left in our skin forever

      Posted in art, poetry, quotes | 0 Comments | Tagged art, inspiration, nayirrah waheed, poetry, salt
    • pretty

      Posted at 8:27 am by jasminedesirees, on March 9, 2016

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      “You don’t have to be pretty.

      You don’t owe prettiness to anyone. Not to your boyfriend/spouse/partner, not to your co-workers, especially not to random men on the street. You don’t owe it to your mother, you don’t owe it to your children, you don’t owe it to civilization in general.

      Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked ‘female’.”- Erin Mckean

      I’ve always liked that quote, so wanted to share in honour of International Women’s Day. I’m a day late, but that’s just what life is like sometimes.

      Image Source

      Posted in inspiration, quotes | 0 Comments | Tagged erin mckean, international women's day, pretty, quote, women
    • my life on the road

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on December 23, 2015

      Gloria Steinem

      I just finished reading My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem. It’s a collection of stories and anecdotes about her time traveling around the USA as an organizer, fundraising and public speaking to raise awareness for feminism and different political causes and campaigns.

      It was really interesting, there are stories about JFK, Bobby Kennedy and MLK, but some of my favourite parts of the book were just little tidbits from random people she had met during her journeys. The point of the book is to encourage people to travel, to meet each other in person, and to get involved with their communities. Basically, to live in the now, as she says The Road forces you to do.

      I have been hearing and reading about Gloria Steinem all my life, but I’d never read one of her books before. After this one, I’m excited to go back and read the others.

      Some of my favourite excerpts:

      “I myself cried when I got angry, then became unable to explain why I was angry in the first place. Later I would discover this was endemic among female human beings. Anger is supposed to be “unfeminine” so we suppress it– until it overflows.”

      “Now I know that both the palaces and the movies were fantasies created by Hollywood in the Depression, the only adventures most people could afford. I think of them again whenever I see subway riders lost in paperback mysteries, the kind that Stephen King’s waitress mother once called her “cheap sweet vacations” and so he writes them for her still. I think of them when I see children cramming all five senses into virtual images online, or when I pass a house topped by a satellite dish almost as big as it is, as if the most important thing were the ability to escape.

      The travel writer Bruce Chatwin wrote that our nomadic past lives on in our ‘need for distraction, our mania for the new.’ In many languages, even the word for human being is ‘one who goes on migrations.’ Progress itself is a word rooted in a seasonal journey. Perhaps our need to escape into media is a misplaced desire for the journey.”

      “She turns out to be a ninety-eight year old former Ziegfeld girl who is on her way to dance in an AIDS benefit on Braodway with her hundred-and-one-year-old friend from chorus girl days- something they’ve been doing since the tragedy of AIDS first appeared. Humbled by this response and looking for advice on my own future now that I’m past seventy, I ask her how she has remained herself all these years. She looks at me as if at a slow pupil. ‘You’re always the person you were when you were born,’ she says impatiently. ‘You just keep finding new ways to express it.'”

      Also, loved the dedication:

      “This book is dedicated to Dr. John Sharpe of London, who in 1957, a decade before physicians in England could legally perform a abortion for any reason other than the health of the woman, took the considerable risk of referring for an abortion a twenty-two-year old American on her way to India.

      Knowing only that she had broken an engagement at home to seek an unknown fate, he said ” You must promise two things. First, you will not tell anyone my name. Second, you will do what you want do with your life.”

      Dear Dr. Sharpe, I believe you, who knew the law was unjust, would not mind if I saw this so long after your death.

      I’ve done the best I could with my life.

      This book is for you.”

      Posted in books, quotes | 0 Comments | Tagged books, gloria steinem, my life on the road, quote
    • loveliness

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on December 3, 2015

      A few lovely things for today, when I’m snuggling up under the covers and dreaming of Christmas in Mazatlan. Wake me up when December ends.

      loveliness

      loveliness

      loveliness

      loveliness

      loveliness

      Source

      Posted in art, favourites, inspiration, loveliness, poetry, quotes | 0 Comments | Tagged Alice in Wonderland, inspiration, Lewis Carrol, loveliness, photography, quotes
    • always say yes

      Posted at 8:05 am by jasminedesirees, on November 16, 2015

      hawaii

      “Never say ‘no’ to adventures. Always say ‘yes’, otherwise you’ll lead a very dull life.” ~ Ian Fleming

      I’m writing this from a beach house in Waianae, Hawaii. I booked my ticket Friday night, and left Saturday morning.

      I struggled for a few minutes, over whether or not this was a practical thing that a normal, well-adjusted person would do, and then realized, I don’t care.

      Posted in exploring, Hawaii, loveliness, quotes, travel, USA | 1 Comment | Tagged adventure, beach, Hawaii, ian fleming, quotes, travel
    • loveliness

      Posted at 9:34 am by jasminedesirees, on September 23, 2015

      A few lovely things for today, when I’m back in Arizona for 11 days in a row, the longest unbroken stretch since May.

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      Source

      Posted in art, inspiration, loveliness, photography, poetry, quotes | 0 Comments | Tagged art, inspiration, life, loveliness, photography, quotes
    • loveliness

      Posted at 10:24 am by jasminedesirees, on July 22, 2015

      A few lovely things for today, when I’m enjoying my gypsy summer (currently back in California), but also trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.

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      9f5c2cbc983a41406d8db83bd6b9d2c4Source

       

      Posted in art, inspiration, loveliness, poetry, quotes | 0 Comments | Tagged art, inspiration, loveliness, poetry, quotes
    • how to be parisian wherever you are

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on April 20, 2015

      I just finished reading “How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are: Love, Style and Other Bad Habits”. It was a super quick read, I finished it in a couple of hours, but I really enjoyed it. It’s written by 4 Parisian women, and gives some insights into their lifestyle, fashion, which stereotypes are true, and why they do some of the things they do.

      Most of the things in the book are probably highly subjective, as Parisian women are most likely just like women from everywhere else in the world, sharing similarities and differences with each other and everyone else, but there were a few passages in the book that I especially liked:

      On aging:

      “In truth, more than wanting to look young– which is but a fleeting illusion–they want above all to become the best possible version of themselves, outside and in, at any age.

      In their mind, a single rule outweighs all others: enjoy the face you have today. It’s the one you’ll wish you have ten years from now.”

      A Mother’s Advice on Love:

      “Just because you only have one life doesn’t mean you should be afraid of wasting it.”

      On fashion:

      “The signature item is a gift that a woman gives herself depending on her age, her taste, and the size of her purse. It is a symbol of independence and freedom which states ‘I bought this for myself. I earned it and it makes me happy’.”

      “Find ‘your’ perfume before you turn thirty. Wear it for the next thirty years.”

      You can get the book here.

      Posted in books, inspiration, quotes | 0 Comments | Tagged books, fashion, how to be parisian, quotes, reading, style
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