Am I Normal Yet? Quotes

“Because now people use the phrase OCD to describe minor personality quirks. "Oooh, I like my pens in a line, I'm so OCD."
NO YOU'RE FUCKING NOT.
"Oh my God, I was so nervous about that presentation, I literally had a panic attack."
NO YOU FUCKING DIDN'T.
"I'm so hormonal today. I just feel totally bipolar."
SHUT UP, YOU IGNORANT BUMFACE.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“Everyone's on the cliff edge of normal. Everyone finds life an utter nightmare sometimes, and there's no 'normal' way of dealing with it... There is no normal, Evelyn.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“Bad stuff happens, people are mean, there are no steps you can take that ensure the world leaves you alone. All you can do is try not to be one of those people who contributes to the bad.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“Do you ever wonder,” he asked, “how we decide what’s mad and what isn’t? There’s so much crazy stuff in the world – everything’s a mess most of the time – but then people who can’t handle it are called mental and have films made about them… But what if they’re just reacting to the weirdness of the universe? Isn’t it more weird to just think everything’s okay, when it clearly isn’t?”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“Mental illnesses grab you by the leg, screaming, and chow you down whole.They make you selfish. They make you irrational. They make you irrational. They make you self-absorbed. They make you needy. They make you cancel plans last minute. They make you not very fun to spend time with. They make you exhausting to be near.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“Being a woman, in this world, ultimately makes you crazy.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“Do you ever worry you’re being a teenager wrong?” I thought of the last three years. “I KNOW I’m being one wrong.” “I mean, what’s wrong with finding songs glorifying domestic violence offensive? What’s wrong with finding live music too loud? What’s wrong with a nice cup of tea and a chat?”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“I want you to promise me that you'll stop comparing yourself to everyone else.'
'What?' I broke off the hug, not understanding.
'You. Evelyn. You're always like, 'I wish I coulld be like this' or 'I wish I could be more like so-and-so'. You're obsessed with being normal, but that's well boring, and you're extraordinary, Evie. Promise me you'll stop trying to stop stop being you'.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“He's been so changeable with her I'm surprised he's not been accepted to Hogwarts for his transfiguration skills.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“If we expect all men to have six-packs and biceps, we can't get mad when they expect us to be stick-figures with DD boobs.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“It would've been the perfect time to tell her. To tell anyone. To say, 'I'm drowning and I need someone, anyone, to be my life raft.' To say, 'I thought it had gone, and it hasn't and I'm so scared by what that means.' To say, 'I just want to be normal, why won't my head let me be normal?”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“Everyone's always scared for someone else's generation”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“It was like I'd climbed Everest, had the summit in my sight, the flag in my hand, all ready to pierce it into the top of the mountain and say, "Whoopdedoo, I made it," and then an avalanche from out of nowhere swept me right back to the bottom of the mountain again. Was it worth bothering to try and climb it again? I was exhausted. I'd already climbed it. I didn't want to...but, then, what other choice was there?”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“It was all very well being a strong independent woman, but it was hard when boys’ confusing behaviour kept making you lose your focus.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“Ha, that’s the problem. You have to exert brain control in order to do it, and isn’t a lack of control over your brain why you’re in therapy in the first place?”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“Because there’s nothing more comforting than someone who actually gets it. Really gets it. Because they’ve been to the same hell as you have and can verify you’ve not made it up.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“She wouldn’t have understood. Or worse, she would’ve pretended to understand, but then got annoyed when her support didn’t magically cure me.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“Because now people use the phrase OCD to describe minor personality quirks. “Oooh, I like my pens in a line, I’m so OCD.” NO YOU’RE FUCKING NOT. “Oh my God, I was so nervous about that presentation, I literally had a panic attack.” NO YOU FUCKING DIDN’T.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“I don’t know. How are you supposed to know? Why can’t God come down from the sky with a giant foam finger, point at some bloke, and say, “That one, Evie, you’re supposed to fall in love with that one. He’s not a douche, I checked for you.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“Soon my sobs dulled to a whimper. Soon my breathing came back. Soon I was able to get off the carpet. Soon I'd meet my friends for college and pretend it hadn't happened.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“So what’s the answer, Evie? What do we do?” I pulled a face and scratched my head. “Er…yeah…I’m not so sure. Maybe riot on the streets, raise a revolution and overthrow the entire system?” “Careful now,” Amber replied, spraying more neon pink icing crumbs onto the floor. “Talk like that gets people thrown into psychiatric institutions.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“Are you the conker whisperer or something?”
He grinned and dropped his spare one to the ground. “I am the whisperer of many things.”
“Yeah. Bullshit. You’re the whisperer of bullshit.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“I didn't really have any sharable anecdotes. That's the thing about anxiety - it limits your experiences so the only stories you have to tell are the "I went mad" ones.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“Jane simpered and curled herself back around Joel, like he’d said something romantic rather than creepy and sinister.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“I wanted to grab his mum's face and yell, “I’m not a horrible person, I’m not. But I’m broken too and I’ve never been on the recovering end of this behaviour before and I can’t handle it and I have to look after me first, before anyone else.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“Yeah, well, your penis seemed to really like someone else on Saturday.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“Almost there..." I said, like I was taking my child to Disneyland.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“Ethan, you don’t need professional help. You just need a wank, and what you really need is to leave me alone forever.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“Las enfermedades mentales te agarran de la pierna entre gritos y te devoran por completo. Te hacen egoísta. Te hacen irracional. Te hacen ensimismada. Te hacen necesitada. Te hacen cancelar planes a última hora. Te hacen ser una persona no muy divertida con la que pasar el rato. Te hacen ser una compañía a la que acabas aborreciendo.”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?

“Were these my options? Easy lay or mental? A lie, or alone? Were these the only options boys gave you? Was it mental to want someone to love you? Was it mental to want to be courted before a guy but an actual piece of his body inside your body? Was it mental to want a message after you’d kissed someone? Was it mental to want the most normal thing in the world- a relationship? One that didn’t make your heart feel full of bogeys?”
― Holly Bourne, Am I Normal Yet?