Quotes from Jessica Zafra

I hear what many of you are saying: We don't have the time, we are busy. Well Nobody Has Time, Everyone Is Busy. In the time it took you to read this post, your life just got a minute shorter. That is precisely why we read (and why some of us write): because life is short and finite, we want more, and literature is the distillation of all those lives we will not lead.

Why should I bring happiness to those I loathe by obliterating myself, when I can make them miserable just by existing?

Once you've read too many trashy best-sellers, you begin to look for something with substance, something that attempts to define the universe.

Someday you will look back on all the awful stuff that's happening to you, and fondly smile. Doesn't say much about the future, does it?

My philosophy in gadgets is simple: Use them until they fall apart. Ignore new models as long as you can; they're a plot to separate you from your money.

While being madly in love is fun, perhaps one should aspire to be sanely in love.

As you go through life, you learn many lessons. Unfortunately these lessons only apply to the specific instances in which you learned them. Therefore you can expect to make horrible mistakes no matter how long you live.

People will hate you for no apparent reason.

The reason men rule is because women let them.

We don't really have a movie industry; we have a trailer industry. The movie guys make five minutes worth of stuff to get people in the theatre, and eighty-five minutes of filler.

The reason producers make stupid movies is because there are stupid people who will pay to see them.

The expression "madly in love" is apt, for it describes a form of temporary insanity.

If you are honest with yourself, your life will be so much more pleasant.

Jealousy is like wasabe—a little can add excitement to your salmon sashimi but too much can make you cry and trigger facial contortions. I find it very flattering if someone is jealous of me. It is an affirmation that I am hot and spectacular. It is a confirmation of my value and importance. Yes, I am vain.

Never, ever point out that a woman is eating too much.

My Macbook is my new boyfriend, except that he's dependable and meets all my demands.

Repeat after me: "I am a goddess. I am a goddess. I am a goddess." Make this your mantra. From constant repetition you will start believing it, and if you yourself are convinced of your goddesshood, other people will be convinced.

To work problems out for yourself, to find you own way out of ignorance, to know the pleasure of knowing - these things improve the quality of life. Unfashionable, even impractical, but true.

Yes, it's true that you can't learn everything from books. But you do learn something about everything.

What we call the wisdom that comes with age is usually simple caution.

I find it tiresome when people parade their agonies for public viewing; the last thing I want to evoke is pity. We are all the walking wounded, your pain is no worse than everyone else's.

I cannot write about Venice; I can only write about me, and the sleeping parts of myself that Venice has shocked into wakefulness.

If you're on a plane and the person in front of you starts slowly tilting to one side, it means he's letting out a fart. Take cover!

The challenge for all of us in this day and age is to distinguish between the merely surprising and the truly amazing.