Candace Bushnell

“I know I have to do the right thing. And the sooner you do the right thing, the better. You get it over with, and you don't have to worry about it anymore. But who does that in real life? Instead, you procrastinate and think about it and put it off and think about it some more until that one little pebble grows into a giant block inside your head.”

“I don't like to think of myself as a 'virgin'. I prefer to think of myself as 'sexually incomplete'. You know. Like I haven't finished the course yet.”

“Why do magazine do this to women?" Miranda complains now, glaring at Vogue. "It's all about creating insecurity. Trying to make women feel like they're not good enough. And when women don't feel like they're good enough guess what?" "What?" I (Carrie) ask, picking up the grocery bad, "Men win. That's how they keen us down" she concludes”

“The only way to look at men is like they're electrons. They have all these charges sticking out, and they're always looking for a hole where they can put those charges.”

“Everyone thinks they know so goddamned much about everything and no one knows fuck all about anything.”

“A guy who is crazily, madly in love with you. A guy who sees how incredible and amazing you are, even though you’re not the cheerleader or even close to the prettiest girl in the school. A guy who thinks you’re beautiful, just the way you are.”

“Rule number three: Best friends always think you deserve the best guy even if the best guy barely knows you exist.”

“Why do I keep evading my work? Is it because I’m afraid of being confronted by my lack of abilities?”

“Don’t you ever get scared?” I ask.“Of what?” She says.“Of not being good enough.”“You mean at writing?” L’il asks.I nod. “What if I’m the only one who thinks I can do it and no one else does? What if I’m fooling myself-““Oh, Carrie.” She smiles. “Don’t you know that every writer feels that way? Fear is part of the job.”

“Your moustache,” I continue. “It’s kind of like me wanting to be a writer. It’s part of me. I don’t know who I’d be if I didn’t want to be a writer.”

“Why shouldn’t I? I demand silently. Why shouldn’t I become a famous writer? Like Norman Mailer. Or Philip Roth. And F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hemmingway and all those other men. Why can’t I be like them? I mean, what is the point of becoming a writer if no one reads what you’ve written?Damn Viktor Greene and The New School. Why do I have to keep proving myself all of the time? Why can’t I be like L’il, with everyone praising and encouraging me? Or Rainbow, with her sense of entitlement. I bet Viktor Greene never asked Rainbow why she wanted to be a writer.Or what if-I wince-Viktor Greene is right? I’m not a writer after all.”

“I feel sick.It’s one thing to write for the school newspaper. But New York is on a whole different level. It’s a mountain, with a few successful people like Bernard at the top, and a mad of dreamers and strivers like me at the bottom.And then there are people like Viktor, who aren’t afraid to tell you that you’ve never going to reach that peak.”

“Thank goodness for the first snow, it was a reminder--no matter how old you became and how much you'd seen, things could still be new if you were willing to believe they still mattered.”

“And if you were always spending your time getting over your past, how were you supposed to get on with your future?”

“Oh I don't plan on getting married. It's a legalized form of prostitution.”

“Love is spiritual. It's about self-sacrifice and commitment. And discipline. You cannot have true love without discipline and respect. When you lose the respect of your spouse, you've lost everything.”

“We'll then," Enjd said. "What's the problem?""This," Mindy said. She opened her hand and held up a tiny green plastic toy solider thrusting a bayonet."I don't understand," Enid said."This morning, when I opened my door to get the newspaper, I found a whole troop of them arranged on the mat.""And you think Paul Rice did it," Enid said skeptically."I don't think he did it. I know he did it," Mindy said. "He told me if I didn't approve his air conditioners, it was war...”

“This, Sebastian is no mere purse. And, you shouldn't call a handbag a purse.....a bag, on the other hand, is meant to be seen.”

“Have I ever been in love? Really in love? And why is it that with each new guy I think I'm more in love with him than the last?”

“I didn't want it to be this way." "Yes, you did," she said, "because it is.""I just want to be with someone normal," he said. "I just want to have a normal life.""Excuse me," she said."You're a little crazy," he said. "You're too old to act the way you do. You've got to grow up. You've got to take care of yourdelf. I'm afraid for you. You can't think that people are going to take care of you all the time.”

“..he said, he didn't know what to do. He couldn't move forward. He thought, they should move on. He started crying. Not for himdelf, for her. He'd rescued her from her lousy life, and now he was throwing her back. He felt like a shit for doing it, for things having to be that way, for not being able to gove her what she wanted. The last thing he wanted was to hurt her. The only part that wasn't in the manual, was her response: She started to laugh. "Oh, give me a break," she said.”

“After all, it's woman, who decide, if a man is desirable or undesirable.”

“I don't know. There are so many beautiful girls around, that after a while you start looking for someone, who can make you laugh.”

“I think, when men tell women to lose weight, it's a diversion from their own lack of size in certain areas.”

“As long as you're neurotic and crazy, he's great. But once he solves all your problems, he becomes the problem.”

“I wouldn't be in shallow relationships, so I do nothing. I have no sex and no romance. Who needs it.? Who needs all these potential problems like disease and pregnancy.? I have no problems. No fear of disease, psychopaths, or stalkers. Why not just be with your friends and have real conversations and a good time.?”

“When you're alone, it's easier," she said a little wistfully. "You can do what you want. You don't have to go home.”

“The world is full of people who all want the same thing, and you have to do a little something extra to make them remember you.”

“Meanwhile I'll probably see him again. That's how sick I am.”

“It was the first honest emotional connection I'd had in a while. So I immediately panicked and had to leave.”

“Is this better or worse than being married and living in the suburbs? Better or worse? Who can tell?”

“She didn't want to have anything to do with the party. She was tired of feeling like she didn't fit in, but she didn't want to go home, either, because she was a tired of being lonely and she was a little drunk.”

“All those men who end up disappointing you. After a while, you don't even want to have feelings anymore. You just want to get on with your life.”

“Men do suck.”

“You don't want to peak in high school. If you do, the rest of your life is a disaster.”

“When it comes to people--don't write about who you know, but what you know of human nature.”

“In life, there are only four kinds of girls:The girl who played with fire.The girl who opened Pandora's Box.The girl who gave Adam the apple.And the girl whose best friend stole her boyfriend.”

“He still went out nearly every night. I thought, is this what he's going to do when we have the baby? Have I made another terrible mistake with a man? You don't really know a man until you have a child with him. Then you see so much. Is he kind? Is he tolerant? Is he loving? Or is he immature and egotistical and selfish? When you have a child, it can go two ways with your husband: You love him even more, or you lose all respect for him. And if you lose respect, there's no way to get it back...”

“Always look like you know where you're going, even when you don't”

“then why sell?" James had asked. "have to," Redmond said. "if I want to get married and have children and live in this city, I have to." "since when do you want to get married and have kids?" James asked. "since now. Life gets boring when you're middle-aged. You can't keep doing the same thing. You look like an asshole. You ever notice that?" Redmond had asked.”

“There are so many beautiful girls around that after a while you start looking for someone who can make you laugh”

“I adore him," she said. "I feel compassion for him because he's totally fucked up.”

“Sebastian (Se-bastard) is a Scorpio..”

“I've always thought there are two ways of getting what you wanted in life.Forcing people to give it to you,or making them want to give it to you.”

“I can only hope he's an Aries and not a Scorpio.”

“I’ve had boyfriends before, and frankly, each one was a disappointment.There was nothing horribly wrong with these boys. It was my fault. I’m kind of a snob when it comes to guys.So far, the biggest problem with the boys I’ve dated is that they weren’t too smart. And eventually I ended up hating myself for being with them. It scared me, trying to pretend I was something I wasn’t. I could see how easily it could be done, and it made me realize that was what most of the other girls were doing as well—pretending. If you were a girl, you could start pretending in high school and go on pretending your whole life, until, I suppose, you imploded and had a nervous breakdown, which is something that’s happened to a few of the mothers around here. All of a sudden, one day something snaps and they don’t get out of bed for three years.”

“It’s tempting to wish for the perfect boss, the perfect parent, or the perfect outfit. But maybe the best any of us can do is not to quit, play the hand we’ve been dealt, and accessorize what we’ve got.”

“Some secrets are better left at that -as secrets.”

“There is a thin line between attraction and repulsion”

“Just because something doesn't last forever, it doesn't mean it wasn't meaningful while it did last. It doesn't mean it wasn't important.”