As women, we get the message about how to be a good girl - how to be a good, pretty girl - from such an early age. Then, at the same time, we're told that well-behaved girls won't change the world or ever make a splash.
Phoebe Waller-BridgeRead
If you hear somebody say something absolutely horrendous about their own life, in quite a flippant, offbeat kind of way, when you meet people clearly trying to be strong and brave, the ones who are really good at it are the ones who break my heart the most.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the contrast between casual self-deprecation and genuine vulnerability, revealing the depth of human emotions.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge reflects on how the casual manner in which people might speak about their struggles can mask a deeper pain. She emphasizes that those who present themselves as strong and brave, often while hiding their true feelings, evoke the most compassion and sorrow. The nuance of their resilience juxtaposed with their hidden struggles resonates profoundly, making them appear more relatable and heart-wrenching.
Themes
VulnerabilityStrengthPainEmotionsResilience
In practice
Example use cases
In a mental health awareness event, to encourage openness about emotions.
More from Phoebe Waller-Bridge
All quotes →You don't often see a cross section of female characters interacting with each other at the top of a chain.
Phoebe Waller-BridgeRead
I think, a lot of time, I'm just writing my worst fears, of the idea of losing my mom or my best friend or doing something so terrible to somebody that's kind of deemed unforgivable or having a really broken family.
Phoebe Waller-BridgeRead
You're allowed to bore your friends and family, but to bore your audience is unforgivable.
Phoebe Waller-BridgeRead
When an audience is laughing with a character, they make themselves so vulnerable, and they open up. They expose their heart the moment they're laughing, because they're relaxed and they're disarmed.
Phoebe Waller-BridgeRead
I feel liberated being around women who are liberated.
Phoebe Waller-BridgeRead
Similar quotes
Everything he'd done with regard to her in the last three years had been calculated to foreclose the intensely personal sort of talks they'd had when he was younger: to get her to shut up, to train her to contain herself, to make her stop pestering him with her overfull heart and her uncensored self. And now that the training was complete and she was obediently trivial with him, he felt bereft of her and wanted to undo it.
Jonathan FranzenRead
Married people dont look like they have bedrooms on their minds when they look at each other. In this world, either you're virtuous or you enjoy yourself. Not both...Not both.
Ayn RandRead
I was the green monkey, the pariah. And I had no friends. Not just a few friends, or one good friend, or grudging acceptance by other misfits and outcasts. I was alone. All stinking alone, without even an imaginary playmate.
Harlan EllisonRead
Part of me loves and respects men so desperately, and part of me thinks they are so embarrassingly incompetent at life and in love. You have to teach them the very basics of emotional literacy. You have to teach them how to be there for you, and part of me feels tender toward them and gentle, and part of me is so afraid of them, afraid of any more violation.
Anne LamottRead
Empathy isn’t just something that happens to us — a meteor shower of synapses firing across the brain — it’s also a choice we make: to pay attention, to extend ourselves.
Leslie JamisonRead
Dona Crista laughed a bit. "Oh, Pip, I'd be glad for you to try. But do believe me, my dear friend, touching her heart is like bathing in ice." I imagine. I imagine it feels like bathing in ice to the person touching her. But how does it feel to her? Cold as she is, it must surely burn like fire.
Orson Scott CardRead