Sloane Crosley

Sloane Crosley

31 quotes

Writer and wordsmith — Sloane Crosley (b. 1979) is an American voice whose observations cut across disciplines. Celebrated for her humorous essays, which are often collected into books like I Was Told There'd Be Cake, How Did You Get This Number, and Look Alive Out There, Sloane Crosley brought that same intensity to the written and spoken word. Discover 42 of Sloane Crosley's most memorable quotes, ranging across Home, Funny, Birthday, Truth, and Power. Here is a taste of their wisdom: "The truth is, I wrote a novel when I was 23. It's hideously bad. Truly rotten."

“I think a lot of humor is about distracting yourself. Pretend you're not trying to make it funny. Because for some reason the effort to be funny smells like sulphur in our culture.”

— Sloane Crosley

Funny

All Quotes by Sloane Crosley

“I have a disproportionate amount of faith in the goodness of the world and that everything will actually work out okay.”

— Sloane Crosley

Faith

“My personality, when tasked with creating meals, goes something like this: Is there a way we can make this more difficult? Because let's do that. I don't mean to complicate things. It's just - why buy pre-packaged potato salad when you can spend your morning boiling potatoes and flipping out because there's no dill in the house?”

— Sloane Crosley

Morning

“My grandmother was a kind of Scarsdale, New York, society woman, best known in her day as the author of the 1959 book 'Growing Your Own Way: An Informal Guide for Teen-Agers' - this despite being a person whose parenting style made Joan Crawford's wire hangers look like pool noodles.”

— Sloane Crosley

Parenting

“It's funny. People often compare me to other humor essayists. They're usually quite nice comparisons I will accept those gladly. But I am always sort of appalled at the idea of being lumped with other, more chick-y female writers. And the truth is probably that neither comparison is accurate.”

— Sloane Crosley

Funny

“Some of the writers I admire who seem very, very funny and very emotional to me can develop a closeness with the reader without giving too much of themselves away. Lorrie Moore comes to mind, as does David Sedaris. When they write, the reader thinks that they're being trusted as a friend.”

— Sloane Crosley

Funny

“If I go into a sandwich shop or anywhere that features 'Today's specials' on a chalkboard more than 10 feet away, I have to ask for a printed menu. I smile at people I don't know on the street and ignore those I do. When at home, I often find myself grabbing my 'back-up' glasses to search for the better-loved pair I have left on top of my dresser.”

— Sloane Crosley

Home

“A pet store is a celebration of dogs' existence and an explosion of options. About cats, a pet store seems to say, 'Here, we couldn't think of anything else.' Cats are the Hanukkah of the animal world in this way. They are feted quietly and happily by a minority, but there's only so much hoopla applicable to them.”

— Sloane Crosley

Pet

“In New York, if you weigh under 200 pounds and decline so much as a cookie at a co-worker's party, women will flock to your side, assuring you of your appealing physique. This is how skittish we are about the dangers of anorexia and the pressures of body image.”

— Sloane Crosley

Women

“Alaska is what happens when Willy Wonka and the witch from Hansel and Gretel elope, buy a place together upstate, renounce their sweet teeth, and turn into health fanatics.”

— Sloane Crosley

Health

“The Queen of Crafts herself, Martha Stewart, and I have the same birthday. I prefer to think it's the glue-gun wielding, perfect-tart-producing Martha and not the copper pan-throwing, jail-going Martha. But I suppose if I am going to share a calendar square with some of Martha, I have to share it with all of Martha.”

— Sloane Crosley

Birthday

“I hope to one day co-sign a lease with another person but, well, it doesn't plague me that I have yet to do so. Put it this way: I've never had to violently tug at my own pillow at 2 A.M. to get myself to stop snoring.”

— Sloane Crosley

Hope

“Brits and Americans have hundreds of different phrases for the same thing. Luckily, it's usually a source of amusement rather than frustration. A flashlight by any other name is still a torch. My personal favourite is 'fairy lights,' which we boringly refer to as 'Christmas lights.'”

— Sloane Crosley

Christmas

“My mother is a special education teacher but also an artist, and my father an advertising executive. They are about as wacky as you can get without being alcoholics.”

— Sloane Crosley

Education

“I like to try to do a little work before I do anything in the morning, even if it's a paragraph.”

— Sloane Crosley

Morning

“I'm a summer baby, so I usually have my birthday as a good summer memory.”

— Sloane Crosley

Birthday

“Our culture's obsession with vintage objects has rendered us unable to separate history from nostalgia. People want heart. They want a chaser of emotion with their aesthetics.”

— Sloane Crosley

History

“I was the youngest of my entire family so you are tap-dancing to try to get the attention of your older cousins. I really hit my social stride in 6th grade, but before that I was a pretty big dork. You learn how to be amusing and how to work for it.”

— Sloane Crosley

Family

“There's already a marriage clock, a career clock, a biological clock. Sometimes being a woman feels like standing in the lobby of a hotel, looking at the dials depicting every time zone in the world behind the front desk - except they all apply to you, and all at once.”

— Sloane Crosley

Marriage

“The hardest thing is spending twelve hours a day accommodating the rest of the world, then going home at night and criticizing it. I would be curious about what I'd write if I didn't have to worry about offending.”

— Sloane Crosley

Home

“For me, titles are either a natural two-second experience or stressful enough to give you an ulcer. If they don't pop out perfect on the first try, they can be really hard to repair. Or, worse, if the author thinks they pop out perfect, but the publishing house does not agree, it's difficult to shift gears. And then? Then you go insane.”

— Sloane Crosley

Experience