Sarah Dessen Quotes

People assume that I'm girly. But people who know me say I'm more boyish.

I've always been in this weird indie world, and for a long time, I felt that it was not okay to be girly in that world.

I wasn't interested in playing the hot-girl role.

I was always a tomboy as a kid. I always had boyfriends. I was just a regular girl growing up in the late '50s and early '60s, but I was never really attracted to what the girls were attracted to: makeup, my appearance, homemaking.

Marya Morevna! Don't you know anything? Girls must be very, very careful to care only for ribbons and magazines and wedding rings. They must sweep their hearts clean of anything but kisses and theater and dancing. They must never read Pushkin; they must never say clever things; they must never have sly eyes or wear their hair loose and wander around barefoot, or they will draw his attention!

Political correctness is driving machismo underground and recalling effeminacy from exile.

There is a certain expectation of girls to eventually grow up and behave and fall in line. I've always bucked against that.

I have often wondered what my life would have been like if I had needed a size thirty-eight bra instead of a modest thirty-four.

In the end, I do think it's insulting to men and women to insist that they fit a certain profile. I never understood that.

I have no objection to a man being a man, however masculine that may be.

I was never tomboyish. I loved Barbies. It's just the way I grew up.

'I'll be back' always sounded a little girly to me.

I, like many women, buy into patriarchal standards of beauty every day. I very rarely leave the house without make-up. I dye my hair. I wear clothes that I choose carefully for how they make me look to the outside world.

Women and men grow up with both sexes. Our mothers and fathers mean a lot to us, so it's just a question of finding a balance between their influences. I've found mine. And it tends to be more on the male side. I mean male side the way we understand it in the West.

Im not your biggest girly girl.

It's funny; I'm in some ways hopelessly masculine, but I don't fish, I don't hunt, I'm not that into sports. I can't fix a car. I think it's my point of view and the way I see the world.

It just so happens that some of the things I like are feminine.

In Georgia, apparently, men are men and women are women - at least in their folk dance.

My mom always taught me to be sweet and polite and cross my legs because it's what the guys like. Actually, they like a raunchy girl once in a while.

I was very much a tomboy. I just couldn't do the pink ballet tutus.

I wasn't like most girls.

In a family of all girls, I was always the 'boy' in my mind - the protector, the masculine one. No one would ever have to worry about me.

People in the States used to think that if girls were good at sports their sexuality would be affected.

There was a time where I knew I was as funny as many dudes, but I had people telling me, 'You have to wear a dress onstage. You need to be more feminine.'

I don't think I could keep my position as a well-standing man in the world if I thought there were roles for men and women.