Best Quotes from Making A Scene by Constance Wu with Page Numbers

My heart dropped down to the bottom of my feet.

You took his breath away.

That heart-falling-to-feet feeling had meant something.

I had never done that before! Where the hell had that confidence come from?

We said 'I love you' for the first time. We said it at the exact same second.

It was a pleasure so delicate and fine, like a baby feeling the gentle brush of a feather.

He never actually did it, but sometimes I’d glance up at him and I could see it in his eyes.

In a grimy staff bathroom, me in my waitressing uniform, him in one shoe... there was just us and the miracle of love.

That small, casual night of board games and laughter is still the nicest one I’ve ever had.

Love remains. Once someone touches your heart, they can’t untouch it.

"I wanted money for new clothes... earning my own money for cool clothes was a necessity."

"It was nice to make something with my hands, nice to feel useful."

"Every night, I was allowed to take a loaf home to my family."

"I liked how the cold dough felt between my fingers, how soft it was against my floury forearms and elbows."

"There was something magical about baking bread before the sun came up."

"We were making people’s bread and we would make it the best bread they ever had."

"I was proud to be a part of that team."

"It required forearm strength... but there was a lovely symmetry to it."

"Rich and Sher had taught us how to be real bakers."

"Montana Gold was spare and simple and made good bread... but it’s the one that lasted."

We concluded that that meant we completed each other—one could snap; the other could whistle.

It was one of the first times I remember trying not to cry.

Sometimes it’s hard to know if an apology is meant for the receiver’s benefit or for the apologizer’s own selfish gratification.

I’d rather feel like a clown than a monster.

It was like she wanted me to remain the mean, sad teenager.

Couldn’t I be allowed to change, the way I had let her change?

It’s funny, I was so confident when we were little kids. But she is the more secure one now.

Her life is her own. She should have an inner life and friendships that I am not a part of.

I guess that’s what growing up is.

We both knew it was magic, so we didn’t need to say anything.

"Even though it’s hard having my friend group ostracize me, I’m grateful it happened, because that’s how I met Molly."

"It felt good to help my best friend."

"How do you find intimacy without magic?"

"Proud that the most painful, nastiest thing I could think of was for her to have, like, the WORST hair."

"This story is not that unusual or especially traumatic. Everyone gets bullied or hurt in some way during their childhood."

"Childhood is a testing ground for what type of person you want to be, and part of that is trying things out, including cruelty, and seeing how it feels."

"What a relief it was to share something bad about myself and still be loved!"

"Her laugh took the shame out of it."

"I’m almost proud of that revenge fantasy. As far as revenge goes, it’s pretty tame."

"We’re both moms now with daughters of our own."

Books were my favorite thing in the world.

During summertime, I’d spend all day in that gross blue chair eating Popsicles and reading books.

Her tough personality made her a legend in our school.

She was the type of scary that was fun, like a Disney villainess.

You are all idiots who are lucky to have me.

My emotions have always been larger than my body.

What do you do when the truth is not enough?

And he showed Mrs. Kantor the door.

Isn’t that crazy? I’d spent so long dwelling on the hurt that I hadn’t been able to look beyond to see how it helped me.

So that’s why I became an actor. Of course I did.

Wow! To me, that seemed like freedom. Why were these girls so stiff when they could be free?

For what felt like the first time in my life, I wasn’t being punished or ridiculed for having big feelings. I was being applauded.

Community theater isn’t about box office or authenticity or even art, really. Community theater is about just that: the community.

I had made magic.

In that quiet, you could hear the room fill up with gratitude. It almost felt like prayer.

The key to finding it, she said, is when the warmth hits you just right and brightness is all around.

It was a thrilling moment.

It feels bad when someone says you are not speaking right—to be heard not for what you’re saying but for how you’re saying it.

Until that exercise, I’d never realized how one little word could hold so much.

What a privilege to be an actor, to examine life in this way.

I didn’t want to be associated with them. I had done such a good job of fitting in and I didn’t want the dumb TV character to ruin it.

That career ethos, that desire to shut down Asian stereotypes, is a reaction to a Hollywood standard that was created by people who do not know us.

You don’t make art for them, so why let their ignorant ridicule inform your artistic choices?

Stereotypes are not harmful for their mere existence; they’re harmful for their reduction of a person or group.

When our reactivity to old wounds renders us ashamed to the point of objection or repudiation, it reinforces the mainstream’s ignorant theory that the people who embody those stereotypes are inherently shameful.

True artists just create something beautiful out of whatever materials they have. They don’t care if the idiots don’t 'get' it.

Let’s be proud of that. How many white Americans can say the same?

I want to see great Asian American actors in accented, previously stereotyped roles—because I know what great actors can do.

Those stereotypical attributes… are our mothers and fathers, our uncles and aunts, our brainy cousins—I don’t want to hide their voices or their stories.

They can’t see us if we don’t move.

In fact, when we first moved into the neighborhood, there were never fewer than six welcome pies or cakes in our kitchen at all times.

Betty and Syd loved children.

I remember how Betty flagged me down when I was walking home from the bus stop just to tell me how delicious they were and how lucky I was to have a mom who was such a good cook.

There was something about eating on a boat that made those soft cold-cut sandwiches taste really good.

I met my biological grandparents only a handful of times.

In many ways, Betty and Syd were my surrogate grandparents.

They shared their love so freely.

That final time I saw Betty and Syd... I remember feeling proud that they were my neighbors.

That’s just how people talk here.

I didn’t know who I was anymore, and I didn’t know who I wanted to be.

New York City could make you feel invincible, like any shit you were given rolled right back to the shit giver.

I wasn’t all that attracted to him, but I was excited about the date because I thought it somehow proved I was cool.

Even the way they walked felt gritty: hard, brisk, and with purpose.

I was only pretending to belong.

I had idealistic and romantic notions of sex. Sex always had to be meaningful, special, with someone I loved.

In movies, rape scenes are often dramatic and violent.

I was proud of that. My number was two and that’s how I wanted it to stay for a while.

He smiled at me again like I was a baby kitten, held me close, kissed me.

I didn’t fight back. I just… gave up.

I realized it was rape, and I hadn’t done anything about it.

The hardest person to play—is your true self.

You have to dig deep. Face your fears.

That’s when I decided, come hell or high water, I was going to win the part of Cassandra.

I wore a shawl to the audition as makeshift 'chains,' emotionally investing every fiber of my being into that shawl.

In that moment it was like I shed everything and everyone who’d ever hurt me, underestimated me, humiliated me, made me feel small.

FUCKING BALLER SPEECH. Hard as FUCK to do.

Cassandra came alive in my body—a roaring fire of pain that pummeled through me.

Even when it felt pathetic or embarrassing... it’s what I did for my role in the television pilot.

I had the audacity to ask him to change the filming dates for me.

This is not to say that the Golden Ones have no talent—it’s just that they don’t arrive wearing Apollo’s chains.

"You don’t do that to people you love. You don’t lie."

"His hair was wet, his jacket was dripping, he was apologizing, his forlorn eyes curving downward with the rain but also upward to me, needy."

"I knew we were just fuckbuddies, but he had confused me when he did boyfriend-like things."

"It felt nice, but off."

"Her face was so kind. How could Matt have done that to someone so kind? She looked like someone he should have treated better. She deserved better."

"You were right. We had known each other for more than ten years; used each other’s bodies for so long. But we were both still okay."

"I felt a lot of things—betrayal, depression, sympathy, fatigue—but also relief."

"Marriage had been really challenging. He and his wife really hadn’t known each other when they had gotten engaged."

"It was easy and fun. Talking about our friends, families, careers. And acting. Always talking about acting."

"To know that, throughout all the lies and drama, our bond hadn’t been false."

I’d longed for this kind of love... but now I was thirty-one and needed to stop chickening out.

Love is not something earned through merit. It’s something that happens with time.

Real things don’t have shortcuts. That takes time.

Everything and everyone is lovable to someone, even if it doesn’t make sense from the outside.

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you.

When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.

You become. It takes a long time.

But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.

If someone stops loving you when your body changes, then they just don’t understand real love.

I was scared of what would happen if I put her into surgery... But when the cataract got too big, I didn’t want her to be in pain.

"Nobody wanted you. I had to fight for you."

"You have to strike while the iron is hot."

"You wouldn’t be here without me."

"You do what I say."

"It was easier to play along. Besides, there was so much to be happy about!"

"It’s a make-or-break moment for all of Asian American representation, and you won’t even do this one damn appearance?"

"No, I don’t want to! You can’t make me!"

"I made a mistake. It wasn’t a reflection of how I feel about you or about the show."

"It was the bravest thing I’d done in a long time."

"What I’m most lucky for is Randall."

"It’s easy to romanticize stuff you don’t know jack shit about."

"None of the art school kids had lived at a Buddhist monastery."

"Interconnectedness is the word some Buddhists use for it, but language falls short."

"There are no shortcuts for the true things in life. You have to sit through the discomfort."

"I may have lived at a Buddhist monastery, but I wonder if the Christian cheese ball guy got it better than I ever did."

"True self-awareness requires context, and I’m glad to know it."

"I recognized how grossly privileged and naive it was for me to idealize hardship."

"Buddhism tells us that attachment causes suffering."

"Maybe what I truly wanted was something else entirely."

"Time and grace."

'In my experience, there are two options for dealing with a wounded heart: the first is numbing and avoidance... The second option—the one I’ve found to be most helpful—is to accept the heartbreak and use it to instruct you.'

'So often, we equate our identities with Things: a job, a boyfriend, a fashion choice, our untouchable taste in music. But when we’re stripped of Things, it forces us to reckon with our true identities.'

'I told myself I was going to try a different approach to my acting career... I needed to get as far away as I could, to a place where I had no history.'

'The love George and I shared made me feel real and seen. When I finally accepted that he didn’t love me back anymore my shoulders dropped and my breathing softened.'

'And that’s when I decided to love George without reciprocation. Instead, I learned to see his face in every face I met.'

'...I was able to act cool for about two minutes before I was overcome with emotion.'

'It hurt so much. I’m proud that, despite everything, I opened my heart enough to get hurt again.'

'The breakup was clean, the way I had asked for it to be. I didn’t call or drunk text or like his posts or anything.'

'He listened to me with his still, attentive face. He held my hand, his eyes full of care.'

'You dressed my wound as I slept.'

Two wrongs don’t make a right; two boobs don’t make a peen.

Laughter is not an excuse. Sometimes people laugh when they’re uncomfortable.

Just because it’s funny to me doesn’t mean it has to be funny to everybody.

My humor and my innocent intentions are not the standard that everyone must follow.

If I’m feeling the need to defend myself, that means I feel attacked.

Who is the injured party here? They’re the ones in need of defense. Not me.

Maybe I’ll learn a standard that is different from mine. Maybe that’s a good thing.

I’m glad you told me, and you are right, I shouldn’t have done that.

I may have been joking, and sure, everyone laughed, but I shouldn’t have done it.

This is an earnest apology. From the bottom of my boob, I am sorry.

"Everything is terrible, but this is where I get to live. I’d dreamed of it my whole life."

"Sometimes, I still sit alone in the car when I get home, but I’m usually scrolling my phone when I do."

"There is dignity in the anonymity of NYC cabs."

"It’s scary to knock on strangers’ doors in the middle of the night, especially when you’re a teenager."

"I felt embarrassed of my crying, but you know I can’t stop my tears."

"Listening for suspicious sounds and smells, laughing with my friends about how crappy she was."

"Driving a humble car made me feel real."

"I didn’t want to be one of those lame rich kids with a Lexus. I preferred life with Pisha, where it was always an adventure."

"I could have accused him of selling me a shit car, but I didn’t because I worried it might hurt his feelings."

"I’d like to say that I’m still the same person I was pre-iPhone, pre-success."

Playing pretend life in these mansions was intoxicating.

Every week for a whole year, I wrote her letters, almost every week!

Your mom is so beautiful.

You’re big enough to do it yourself.

You have to pinch off the small buds so that bigger blooms will grow.

You know why I had FOUR? Because I love babies!

I decided on that flight that I was going to do whatever it took to earn her love.

I just let her do whatever she wanted.

Your dad made me do it! He refused to get snipped, even though it’s easier, haha!

When did she stop dressing beautifully?