Emily V. Gordon

“Everybody's got baggage, and not just the classic, 'Oh I have so much baggage,' but everyone comes with so much context, and you're not just dating a person: you're dating all their context, too. Part of relationships is negotiating each other's context.”

“'The Babadook,' written and directed by a woman, is a gorgeously told female-focused story of grief, longing, loneliness, and what mourning can become.”

“Sometimes we put so much effort into things we're doing, like dating or wedding planning, that we don't stop to think about whether or not we even want the results of that effort.”

“Love is a good thing.”

“Parents go to sleep early. This is universal.”

“That's part of what a relationship is: you don't experience things in the same way.”

“Get married wherever you like, make accommodations for the people you love so they can attend, and forget about the people who can't.”

“Keeping physical items from the past is important - we keep old toys, grandparents' jewelry, yearbooks, dance recital programs - and we assign meaning to them. Those items become the memories, and that's a very healthy thing to do. The problems occur when we have too many of those sentimental items, and they start weighing us down.”

“I definitely think, when you're a teenager, it's more forgiving to talk to strangers and go up to people at a mall or whatever.”

“In my professional and personal life, when I meet people who feel broken after a divorce, they can usually be divided into two categories: those who truly believe there's something wrong with them, and those that are using their status as armor.”

“Things can be tough even when surrounded by nice Pottery Barn stuff.”

“Marriage isn't just about two people who fit together well. It's about two people who figure out how to fit together well.”

“The benefits of a healthy, thriving relationship may not be nearly as exciting as watching your career take off, but both aspects of your life are equally important.”

“Often, when cheating happens, we rush to place blame solely on one person - either the person who did the cheating, or more insidiously, if it happened to us, we blame ourselves for not being 'good enough' to keep them around. But putting it all on one person doesn't paint the entire picture.”

“Don't expect yourself to immediately love your stepchildren. In fact, you may hate them for a bit.”

“Stays at the in-laws' aren't inherently sexy.”

“I am somewhat grateful to the disintegration of my marriage for teaching me a lot about myself and about relationships, and though I wish it hadn't been such a taxing lesson, I wouldn't change a thing.”

“I always tell people, 'Take a class or volunteer.' It really helps you get out of your own little pocket of people you always see and gets you exposed to a new group of people.”

“You're not a victim of your divorce. What you decide to do with yourself and your personal life after your marriage ends is your decision, and completely under your control.”

“There is no level of professional rejection that can compare to almost dying.”