Top 30 Kate Clayborn Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “I perform the task of exhausted women everywhere – taking my bra off without removing my top. Once I’ve pulled it through the armhole of my tank, I fling it onto the old, slouchy couch, sending it the disgusted glare that all bras deserve after a long, hot day.”

— Kate Clayborn

2. “You don’t have to love people the way you learned to love at first.”

— Kate Clayborn

3. “He’s tough because he’s never had a soft place to land,” Dad says. “Not a lot of kindness offered to Levi Fanning around here, for a long time, and I bet that makes it pretty hard for him sometimes. Especially when he needs to figure the soft things out.”

— Kate Clayborn

4. “I enjoyed watching you work. I love that word, enjoyed. It sounds small and polite, but it contains something big, passionate. In my head I see it as it should be, I think. The en- and the -ed should be small, but sturdy. Like bookends, or like hands, supporting something that’s lean and tall, but fragile and new. A fawn’s legs. J-O-Y.”

— Kate Clayborn

5. “I tell her I’ll be there soon and for the rest of the trip over, I’m doing that thing I indulge myself in sometimes, where I compose a lengthy, highly organized but incredibly witty lecture of censure to someone who has done me wrong.”

— Kate Clayborn

6. “Nothing was complicated when you had an enemy. It was you versus them, and you versus them stopped you thinking about the other problem, which was usually something more like: you versus you. You versus your fear. You versus your sadness. You versus your anger.”

— Kate Clayborn

7. “I thought I’d let go of the shame about this part of my life, the way I was basically medicating myself twenty-four hours a day. It’s no different from what millions of people do, good people who are in pain or unsure of where to turn; good people who need a break from everything in this world that’s hard and sad and unforgiving.”

— Kate Clayborn

8. “I think I quit reading at the word stochastic, which actually sort of reminded me of Reid, if what it means is a combination of stoic and sarcastic. But I’m pretty sure it has to do with calculus.”

— Kate Clayborn

9. “I don’t want to act like it was stressful, with my parents.” It was, though. It was stressful to spend so much time alone. It was stressful that it wasn’t easy to make friends, that most of her socialization came from people who were way older than her.”

— Kate Clayborn

10. “Whatever is worse than man-splaining, this is it. This is man-terrogating.”

— Kate Clayborn

11. “You practiced getting along with people. You can certainly practice not getting along with them, too.”

— Kate Clayborn

12. “I was not speaking literally.” I think the slight softness to his voice is sympathy. Dear Diary, I imagine him writing later. Today I met a woman wearing too many buttons who does not understand what a metaphor is.”

— Kate Clayborn

13. “Like he’s taken a professional brow-furrowing class and like his mouth has had a turn-down service. He is laser focused. He would definitely notice if I stress-vomited.”

— Kate Clayborn

14. “She’s giving me something for the moment. A soft place to land.”

— Kate Clayborn

15. “Whatever is worse than man-splaining, this is it. This is man-terrogating. Before, at the Promenade, his questions – they were blunt, too abrupt. But they didn’t feel this way, at least. These are vaguely accusatory and not-so-vaguely superior.”

— Kate Clayborn

16. “I don’t think you’re poison, Lee. Not to me and not to our sister, and I bet not to Georgie, either. I wanted to tell you that, in case you were thinking any different.”

— Kate Clayborn

17. “If Charlie feels even a quarter of what I felt over my brother, I hope something turns around for her, and soon.”

— Kate Clayborn

18. “I hate New York.” It almost makes me recoil, the way he’s said this. Bold, sans serif. No caps, but italics for the It’s not a harmless, pedestrian “I hate this song” or “I hate those chocolate balls rolled in shredded coconut.” It’s not one of those small, meaningless hatreds that shear the word of its meaning.”

— Kate Clayborn

19. “I’ve seen his daughter in a state of undress, and my dog’s worn a pair of her underpants.”

— Kate Clayborn

20. “Alas,” he says, and I worry I’m going to start developing some kind of Masterpiece Theatre library of sexual fantasies. Alas, alas, alas. I’m thinking about the word cravats when he finishes his sentence. “I am not in an area known for its hands-craftsmanship.”

— Kate Clayborn

21. “The same way I woke up on Sunday and hoped I hadn’t hurt that little girl’s feelings.”

— Kate Clayborn

22. “For a split second we look at each other, and to me it feels like a mountain of letters between us, all jumbled up and unmatched, a thousand things I need to say to her but can’t figure out how to say. Not without starting some kind of terrible avalanche. Not without getting buried beneath them.”

— Kate Clayborn

23. “A fundamental quality of my work is its impermanence. Sure, my planners are inked, and sure, clients could always page back through and admire a particular spread. But really, the point of the planners, of the calendars, is that you make your way through them, that you check off the days and turn the page. That you move on.”

— Kate Clayborn

24. “I wanted to make things better for someone in the moment, and it didn’t matter what those things were.”

— Kate Clayborn

25. “Right,” I say, hoping my whole head hasn’t turned into the cringe emoji.”

— Kate Clayborn

26. “Yes, but it’s, you know – every year, you’re all, ‘March! This is going to be great! Start of spring!’ But it’s definitely not, right? Because there will be a weird, freak snowstorm, and it’s like winter’s started all over. Unexpected things happen in March.”

— Kate Clayborn

27. “Don’t,” he replies. I see the word in my head, shaped as a set of double doors closing – on one side, on the other. A tiny sliver of space between, narrowing and narrowing as they shut in my face.”

— Kate Clayborn

28. “A chuckle. I see that word, drawn out. I’d make it so there were no ascenders, so all the letters were on the level. I’d make it so there was hardly any space between them, so that the word would look as snug and as warm as the sound feels.”

— Kate Clayborn

29. “Hey,” he says, arms still crossed forbiddingly. Maybe he can somehow sense I’ve seen his brother and sister. Maybe he’s got a secret love of antiquing and he saw the whole thing. “Hi,” I say, desperate to shake off this unnecessary guilt. “You’re home early.” As soon as it’s out of my mouth, I realize how weird it sounds. Home? He doesn’t live here. Early? I don’t know his regular schedule. I might as well be the one-dimensional wife in a bad TV pilot.”

— Kate Clayborn

30. “Levi Fanning,” I say softly. “Are you calling me trouble?” He lowers his mouth to kiss me, slow and perfect. “I’m calling you the best thing that ever happened to me.”

— Kate Clayborn

31. “They encouraged me to make friends, to try new things, to make mistakes. They gave me the space to be a blank, a mess; they never treated me like their puppet. They gave me what I needed but never told me what I wanted. They made sure I had a place to come when I was finally ready to figure it out. They loved me, no matter what. No strings attached.”

— Kate Clayborn

32. “All his man-terrogating got in my head.”

— Kate Clayborn

33. “I’ve finished with the zucchini, and according to Levi’s fancy book, there are still approximately one hundred more vegetables to chop. Following recipes is terrible.”

— Kate Clayborn

34. “If Sibby were here, she would remind me that talking about the weather in this way is functionally the same as having “I’m a Midwesterner” tattooed onto my face. For my next trick, why not bring up a garage sale I heard about? Or perhaps point out that I got the bag I’m carrying at a fifty percent off sale, with an extra five percent deducted for a temperamental zipper? Would Reid be interested in knowing my opinions on mayonnaise versus Miracle Whip?”

— Kate Clayborn