Jami Attenberg Quotes

And wasn't life full of layers and nuances, colored all kinds of shades of gray, and the way you felt about something when you were twenty or thirty or forty was not how you would feel about something when you were fifty or sixty or seventy
if only he could explain to her that regret can come at any time in your life, when you least expect it, and then you are stuck with it forever.

— Jami Attenberg

“If she had known just a few months before, during more innocent times, that she would feel that way for the rest of her life ... which is to say conflicted, she would have treasured those unaware, nonjudgmental, preadolescent moments more thoroughly. (Oh, to be eleven again!) Because once you know, once you really know how the world works, you can't unknow it.”

— Jami Attenberg

“Everyone agreed that Edie was a tough woman to love, though she was worth loving.”

— Jami Attenberg

“But she never wanted to be in a relationship ever again. Because relationships were the worst. So many obligations. So many compromises. So many arguments. Someone always got destroyed in the end. Sometimes everyone got destroyed in the end.”

— Jami Attenberg

He was a fool to think he could have love twice in this life. Arrogance. He held her hand close his chest with both of his hands. No one was entitled to anything in this life, not the least of all love.

— Jami Attenberg

“There ain't nothing wrong with being alone, which is what I am, or what I have been. It's when it turns to loneliness, when you get to feeling blue about it all, that you're in trouble. There's the problem, loneliness.”

— Jami Attenberg

“If someone loves you, go home to them.”

— Jami Attenberg

“Playing with them was boring, and it wasn't even their fault. It was just the notion of playing itself. She had never gotten the hang of it, even when she was a child. You needed to be able to adopt a personality other than your own in order to fully immerse yourself in the world of play, and it was burden enough carrying her own self around.”

— Jami Attenberg

Worst parent on the planet. All he knew how to do was bark orders and walk away. He didn't understand that his daughter was smarter than that, that she wasn't a dog.

— Jami Attenberg

There's just so many goddamn things we never get to know. We're not entitled to all the truth.

— Jami Attenberg

“But why should I care what he's doing if I'm crazy about you?'
'We are allowed to have more than one feeling at once,' said Kenneth. 'We are human beings, not ants.”

— Jami Attenberg

Sometimes blessings are indiscriminate.

— Jami Attenberg

“He clicked through a dozen of them until he found a picture of a dark, curly haired woman, ample, smiling, appearing much younger than sixty, so familiar-looking that he was immediately attracted to her simply because he found familiarity, rare these days, so comforting. He opened her ad and realized he was staring at a picture of his wife,”

— Jami Attenberg

She opened the McRib box and eyed the dark red, sticky sandwich. Suddenly she felt like an animal; she wanted to drag the sandwich somewhere, not anywhere in this McDonald's, not a booth, not Playland, but to a park, a shrouded corner of the woods underneath shimmering tree branches, green, dark, and serene, and then, when she was certain she was completely alone, she wanted to tear that sandwich apart with her teeth.

— Jami Attenberg

I let the sun hit me. The sun's some kind of gift. Another day we're all alive. I wish she could understand. I'm just happy to be alive.

— Jami Attenberg

“These people all woke up this morning and reminded themselves to be human beings. Not everyone knows how to do that. No vermin, my people. Real human beings.”

— Jami Attenberg

“I actually didn't grow up in a household that loved Chinese food particularly, and it's not really my go-to food or anything ... We were more a pizza family, being from the Chicago area and all.”

— Jami Attenberg

“For years I'd thought my color was black: deep, dark, thoughtful, mysterious. Black, you can hide behind. But now I know it is red.”

— Jami Attenberg

“For years I drove cross-country, back and forth a dozen times, sometimes on book tour, sometimes just to get lost and found.”

— Jami Attenberg

“I don't think there's any topic a writer should feel afraid of tackling just because it has already been discussed. If you feel you have a fresh perspective and an understanding of a certain emotional truth, it's always worth writing.”

— Jami Attenberg

Food and love are all intertwined at our core level. It can be a very nurturing, wonderful, loving thing.

— Jami Attenberg

Young adult novels don't shy away from the discussion of weight issues, and 'Blubber,' the tale of an overweight, not-so-sympathetic fifth-grader bullied by her peers, is a refreshing take.

— Jami Attenberg

“As creative people, we should be really conscious of being of service in our work, being as generous as we can.”

— Jami Attenberg

“I think when you first start out, you're writing books that are about your immediate place.”

— Jami Attenberg

“Maybe I wouldn't hit three fast food restaurants in a day, but I could hit one in a day. I try not to do that.”

— Jami Attenberg

“The interesting thing about overeating or being obese is there's this physical manifestation of it.”

— Jami Attenberg

“I make up stories about people who are either imaginary or some variation of myself.”

— Jami Attenberg

I was fat because my parents were a little fat themselves at that point in their lives, and I ate what they ate.

— Jami Attenberg

It's good to pass on stories.

— Jami Attenberg

“It's the differences in people that help you realize who you are. Even if we silently pass each other on the street.”

— Jami Attenberg

“My grandmother died when my mother was just 11 years old, and consequently, my mother never learned how to cook particularly well.”

— Jami Attenberg

“My parents are still married. They don't weigh 350 pounds; they go to the gym all the time.”

— Jami Attenberg

“Sadly, e-mail has triggered the decline of the handwritten note; I have seen its near-disappearance in my lifetime.”

— Jami Attenberg

“There are generations of people who don't know how to eat properly.”

— Jami Attenberg

“When does an object become a symbol? All I know is you cannot force it.”

— Jami Attenberg

“Why e-mail a full emotional statement when, instead, you can text a totally insignificant and ambiguous half-considered phrase?”

— Jami Attenberg

“I always tell people this when they're looking for an agent - they should love your work. You are entitled to work with someone who believes in you. Why do business with someone who is ambivalent about you and your art?”

— Jami Attenberg

“I check my phone first thing when I wake up in the morning. I usually take it up with me to bed so it's on the floor next to the bed, although not actually in bed with me, because I really do not want to be the person who sleeps with their phone.”

— Jami Attenberg

“I didn't go to graduate school, where all the important writers seemed to be getting their start. I didn't pursue getting published in literary magazines. I didn't even send out countless pitch letters and manuscripts to agents.”

— Jami Attenberg

“You write a book, and after 50 pages you think it's about one thing, and then you write another hundred and you realize it's about something else, and then by the time you're done, you can look back and say, 'Oh, this is what it's about.'”

— Jami Attenberg

Smart, sharp, and hilarious, Slaughterhouse 90210 is the perfect pick-me-up and never-put-me-down book.

— Jami Attenberg

“The fascinating thing about food is that if you have issues with it, you have to face it every single day.”

— Jami Attenberg

The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry is a breezy, big-hearted treat, especially if you've ever wondered about the inner workings of America's national treasures
neighborhood bookstores.

— Jami Attenberg

“You can quit smoking, and never have to have a cigarette again to survive. But with food, it is a daily challenge.”

— Jami Attenberg

My laptop broke and because of the storm I could not get a new one. And so I've been promoting my book via iPhone.

— Jami Attenberg

“I've been told by people who write historical novels that you just sort of write the emotional truth first, the story at the core, and then you go back and research it at the end.”

— Jami Attenberg

“My last book was speculative. I just don't quite know what I am doing. But I'll get there. I have a list of things I would love to write.”

— Jami Attenberg

I love reading books that you can't put down, and they just take you over for a night or a weekend.

— Jami Attenberg

“Studying writing to me means reading and also rewriting obsessively. That's the best way to learn.”

— Jami Attenberg

“Wouldn't that be nice if we could all afford to just freely pursue our dreams?”

— Jami Attenberg