Top 500 Taylor Jenkins Reid Quotes (2024 Update)
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201. “It won’t be fun, necessarily. But it will be good. It’s like going to a party when you’ve had a bad day. You don’t want to go, but you know you should. You know that even if you don’t enjoy it, it will do you good to get out of the house.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

202. “Fidel Castro had control of Cuba. Eisenhower had already put the economic embargo in place by that point. The Bay of Pigs had been a disaster. Being a Cuban-American was complicated. And instead of trying to make my way in the world as a Cuban woman, I simply forsook where I came from. In some ways, this helped me release any remaining ties connecting me to my father.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

203. “Anyway, about the sandbar. It reminded me of you because you are my sandbar. I was lost at sea, and then you showed up. My dry land.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

204. “Nina didn’t hate Carrie Soto for stealing her husband because husbands can’t be stolen. Carrie Soto wasn’t a thief; Brandon Randall was a traitor.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

205. “Reading your letter felt like gasping for air after being trapped under water. I hope you will forgive me for being so blunt, but how did we make such a mess of it all? And what does it mean that we have not spoken in a decade but I still hear your voice in my head every day?”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

206. “Silence is your best friend.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

207. “Some people, you bathe them in those lights and they disappear. But some people, they glow.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

208. “How can you miss someone so much already? My mind is full of all the things I didn’t say. It doesn’t matter how much I did say. There was still so much left to say. I want to tell her that I love her. That I will always remember her. That I am happy for her. That I believe she will find Grandpa.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

209. “Included in the sale will be the emerald-green Miranda La Conda.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

210. “The two of you think you’re lost souls, but you’re what everybody is looking for.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

211. “My ambition has long felt oppressive. It is not a joy – it is a master that I must answer to, a smoke that descends into my life, making it hard to breathe. It is only my discipline, my willingness to push myself harder, that has been my way through.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

212. “I miss my dad. I miss him all the time. But it’s moments like this, when I’m on the precipice of finally doing work that might just expand my heart, that I wish I could at least send him a letter, telling him what I’m doing. And I wish that he could send me one back.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

213. “Twenty-five but she felt forty. Married but she was alone. Childless and yet, hadn’t she raised children?”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

214. “Celia St. James is going to ruin everything.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

215. “I don’t feel regret for the things I’ve done – at least, not the things you might expect – despite how hard they may have been or how repugnant they may seem in the cold light of day.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

216. “I switched to English, not wanting to speak Spanish anymore, not liking how strange it sounded coming out of my own mouth. “I’m Cuban,” I said to her. “I’ve spoken Spanish my entire life.” That wasn’t true, though. I hadn’t spoken it in years.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

217. “You made my life worth living. I promise you I am going to do something with it.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

218. “My husband believed I might die. And he didn’t so much as even call the concierge. A switch flipped in me. I knew, right there and then, I needed to get away from this person. He wasn’t gonna kill me but he would let me die.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

219. “It’s as if a gorgeous, delicate bird has just flown to me and sat directly on my shoulder, and if I don’t make the exact right move, it might fly away.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

220. “I once read that charisma is “charm that inspires devotion.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

221. “If there are all different types of soulmates... then you are one of mine.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

222. “And if I’m being honest, there is something very inspiring about having a black woman running things. As a biracial woman myself – light brown skin and dark brown eyes courtesy of my black father, an abundance of face freckles courtesy of my white mother – Frankie makes me feel more sure that I can one day run things, too.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

223. “I took a taste of it. Not even a sip, but a taste. It took everything I had not to gulp it down, not to throw it into the back of my throat. It tasted like comfort and freedom. That’s how it gets you – what it feels like is the opposite of what it is.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

224. “One small thing my dad said to me on a cold day in Vancouver has essentially been the basis of my entire life’s trajectory. For a brief moment, I wonder if I would have listened to him if he hadn’t died. Would I have clung to his every word so tightly if his advice had felt unlimited?”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

225. “I’d made him arroz con pollo that night, and I specifically didn’t take my apron off when I brought it up. I wanted him to see me as harmless and domestic. I thought I’d get further if I didn’t threaten him. It grated on my nerves to have to ask him how I could spend my own money. But I didn’t see another choice. “Sure,” he said. “I think it’s a smart thing to do. You’ll get better, and who knows, you might even star in a picture one day.” I would star. I wanted to punch his lights out.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

226. “I don’t want to let you love me if you don’t think you can lose me again. One last time.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

227. “The tears that come out of me feel as if they were decades in the making. It feels as if some old version of me is leaking out, letting go, saying good-bye in the effort of making room for a new me. One that is stronger and somehow both more cynical about people and also more optimistic about my place in the world.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

228. “That’s the glory of being a man. An ugly face isn’t the end of you.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

229. “Life is long and full of an infinite number of decisions. I have to think that the small ones don’t matter, that I’ll end up where I need to end up no matter what I do.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

230. “My heart is truly broken. And I know that even if it mends, it will look different, feel different, beat differently.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

231. “When did I lose that? The delight of success? When did winning become something I needed in order to survive? Something I did not enjoy having, so much as panic without?”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

232. “I can’t speak for all people who have been hit by someone they love, but what I can tell you is that forgiveness is different from absolution.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

233. “Por eso es peligroso amar a la persona equivocada, amar a quien no lo merece. Tienes que estar con alguien que se merezca tu fe y tienes que ser merecedor de la fe de alguien. Eso es algo sagrado.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

234. “But that’s a luxury. You can do that when you’re rich and famous. You can decide that wealth and renown are worthless when you have them. Back then, I still thought I had all the time I needed to do everything I wanted. That if I just played my cards right, I could have it all.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

235. “Either way, it’s not enough for me to say, “I love you.” The words feel so small compared to everything that’s in me. I have to show him. I have to make sure that it’s felt as much as heard.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

236. “You have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity here, Monique. You can see that, right?” “Of course.” “So do yourself a favor and learn how to grab life by the balls, dear. Don’t be so tied up trying to do the right thing when the smart thing is so painfully clear.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

237. “Art doesn’t owe anything to anyone. Songs are about how it felt, not the facts. Self-expression is about what it feels to live, not whether you had 5he right to claim any emotion at any time.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

238. “I don’t want your pity and I don’t want your loyalty. I want you to be with me because you want to be with me.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

239. “I don’t need perfect love and I don’t need a perfect husband and I don’t need perfect kids and a perfect life and all that. I want mine. I want my love, my husband, my kids, my life. I’m not perfect. I’ll never be perfect. I don’t expect anything to be perfect, but things don’t have to be perfect to be strong.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

240. “And I didn’t say I was confessing any sins. To say that what I have to tell is a sin is misleading and hurtful. I don’t feel regret for the things I’ve done – at least, not the things you might expect – despite how hard they may have been or how repugnant they may seem in the cold light of day.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

241. “Don had pushed me down the stairs nine days before. Even as I say it all these years later, I feel the need to defend him. To say that it wasn’t as bad as it sounds. That we were toward the bottom of the stairs, and he gave me a shove that bumped me down about four steps and onto the floor.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

242. “This beautiful thing you’ve been happy to simply appreciate, well, now it’s yours to own.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

243. “Celia may have left me in a huff, but it was a death by a thousand cuts. I hurt her with these tiny scratches, day after day. And then I got surprised when it left a wound too big to heal.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

244. “I’m saying that when you really love someone, sometimes the things they need may hurt you, and some people are worth hurting for.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

245. “It cost so much, caring. I didn’t have any currency to spend on it.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

246. “It takes everything I have not to take it back, not to apologize profusely. My mother raised me to be polite, to be demure. I have long operated under the idea that civility is subservience. But it hasn’t gotten me very far, that type of kindness. The world respects people who think they should be running it. I’ve never understood that, but I’m done fighting it.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

247. “If you are heartbroken right now, then I feel for you deeply,” Evelyn says. “That I have the utmost respect for. That’s the sort of thing that can split a person in two. But I wasn’t heartbroken when Don left me. I simply felt like my marriage had failed. And those are very different things.” When Evelyn says this, I stop my pen in place. I look up at her. And I wonder why I needed Evelyn to tell me that. I wonder why that sort of distinction has never crossed my mind before.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

248. “I love you,” she said. “I love you, too,” I whispered into her ear. “I love you more than anything else in the entire world.” “It’s not wrong,” Celia said. “It shouldn’t be wrong, to love you. How can it be wrong?” “It’s not wrong, sweetheart. It’s not,” I said. “They’re wrong.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

249. “Evelyn, you are not capable of giving it up. And you never will be. And it will be the tragedy of my life that I cannot love you enough to make you mine.”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid

250. “Isn’t it awfully convenient,” Harry added, “that when men make the rules, the one thing that’s looked down on the most is the one thing that would bear them the greatest threat?”

— Taylor Jenkins Reid