It's absolutely amazing to me that anyone allowed their children to watch 'The Ren & Stimpy Show' in the '90s; it's dark, gross, nihilistic, and absolutely bizarre.
— Emily V. Gordon
If a show is wickedly, hugely popular, like 'Mad Men,' I assume that the masses, in their infinite inferiority to me, don't know what good TV is and that everyone is just brainwashed.
You didn't have to know anything about show business to appreciate the characters' humor, because at its heart, 'Party Down' was about following dreams, dealing with rejection, and surviving all the lame jobs we've all had to work just to get by in the meantime.
I grew up in a town where there were no Muslims whatsoever, and there was not a lot of exposure.
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.
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.
That's part of what a relationship is: you don't experience things in the same way.
I have multiple tattoos.
I haven't always been the best advocate for my own body. I was a too-tall, pudgy child who felt completely out of control of the genetic lottery ticket she'd been given, so in retaliation, I shut down. I ignored my body and hated it for not being tiny and cute like my friends' bodies.
Don't sacrifice alone time with your spouse just because the kids seem needy. A united front requires adult time alone, so put it in the calendar and make it a priority. A house cannot stand on a shaky foundation.
Awkward conversations are painful, but they're way easier than divorce, resentment, and heartbreak.
Experiences don't make us damaged goods; it's what we do with those experiences that matters.
Being completely independent doesn't make you a strong woman - it's being strong enough to trust yourself in other people's hands that takes guts.
Men - not all men but a good majority of the ones I have known and worked with - tend to think of difficult situations in their lives as problems that need to be solved.
In Hollywood, it seems that the people least successful at being married are the ones most eager to tie the knot over and over again.
Betrayal can be extremely painful, but it's up to you how much that pain damages you permanently.
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.
Sometimes, I hate-watch television.
If a show is a critical success but a ratings flop, I assume that people are just championing the show because it looks cool to root for an underdog.
There's nothing like listening to the drone of QVC's always-bubbly pitchwomen, as they try to move loose-fitting tunics with 'just the right amount of sparkle,' to soothe you into a healing slumber.
I'm not an actress. I'm a writer.
I remember being a teenager and feeling like I could talk to anyone anywhere about anything.
Love is a good thing.
I think it's lovely when people are more involved in local politics.
There is no level of professional rejection that can compare to almost dying.
Don't expect yourself to immediately love your stepchildren. In fact, you may hate them for a bit.
A lot of new stepparents fall into the trap of letting children disobey household expectations in order to gain favor with them.
Marriage isn't just about two people who fit together well. It's about two people who figure out how to fit together well.
Your life story is a gift, and it should be treated as such.
After my divorce, I took some time off from having a romantic life to begin the tough work of figuring out where I'd gone wrong and what on Earth I could do to understand how to be a whole person in a relationship.
Women are encouraged to go on an emotional journey of self-care after a divorce, while men are expected to need help learning how to cook and parent on their own.
The period that directly follows the dissolution of a long term relationship is extremely volatile, with emotions running the gamut from misery to elation to relief to terror.
Sometimes we are much better at judging people based on how they treat everyone other than ourselves. We make a million excuses for why they treat us how they do.
Without knowing your own history, you are doomed to repeat it.
When someone insists that you watch a show that's already been on for a few seasons, they're basically saying, 'Hey, you're not doing anything for the next five weeks, are you? Because have I got a plan for you every single night! It's 'Weeds!''
I'm tired of hearing about 'Damages,' I don't care how life-changing 'The Wire' is, and I don't want to hear another word about 'Battlestar Galactica' or its super-awesome ending.
I'm a mental-health advocate big time, so I think it's great when depression is a thing that's discussed out in the open, because it's still way too stigmatized.
Not deciding is a decision. People don't realize that not making a decision is a decision in itself.
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.
I think it's always good to get into your partner's mindset.
I thought of 'The Big Sick' as a placeholder title, to be completely honest. I've grown to love it.
I don't remember being put into the coma, but I do have a lot of weird memories from being under. This may be because I was in a coma via medicine rather than trauma. That time period played out for me as one long rambling dream where I was at a hospital to visit my boyfriend, who I thought was in an accident.
Do remember to pick your battles when you start parenting your stepchildren.
Never marry because it seems like what you should do.
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.
Marriage, or any committed partnership, has become sacred to me, powerful and fragile all at the same time.
When I was young and less wise, I thought that being a feminist meant being independent. It meant not sacrificing your needs for anyone else's and not relying on anyone else for even a smidgen of your happiness or well being.
In my experience as a therapist and as a friend, it seems that the majority of the breakup resources available are for women and not men. Women, who tend to be more vocal about their emotional struggles, are the squeaky wheel that gets the grease from friends, from online communities, from books, and from therapeutic approaches.
Post-divorce, the world can feel harsh and full of jagged edges.
If you've had a marriage that ended because of a betrayal in trust on your spouse's behalf, the idea of trusting another person with your heart can seem completely ridiculous.
