Quotes from The Stepford Wives

Ira Levin ·  144 pages

Rating: (22.5K votes)


“You're not going to get any true confessions out of me," she said. "I'm a Leo, and our thing is changing the subject.”
― Ira Levin, quote from The Stepford Wives


“That’s what she was, Joanna felt suddenly. That’s what they all were, all the Stepford wives: actresses in commercials, pleased with detergents and floor wax, with cleansers, shampoos, and deodorants. Pretty actresses, big in the bosom but small in the talent, playing housewives unconvincingly, too nicey-nice to be real.”
― Ira Levin, quote from The Stepford Wives


“I want you to know I won't always be here,' Fertility says, 'but I'll always find you.”
― Ira Levin, quote from The Stepford Wives


“What’s the going price for a stay-in-the-kitchen wife with big boobs and no demands?”
― Ira Levin, quote from The Stepford Wives


“They never stop, these Stepford wives. They something something all their lives. Work like robots. Yes, that would fit. They work like robots all their lives.”
― Ira Levin, quote from The Stepford Wives



“That green stuff outside is grass, and the yellow stuff coming down on it is sunshine.”
― Ira Levin, quote from The Stepford Wives


“No, thanks, we’re not keen on cat pix.”
― Ira Levin, quote from The Stepford Wives


“And you’ll put a deposit on the house tomorrow?”
― Ira Levin, quote from The Stepford Wives


“What’s wrong with Bill McCormick? Can’t he run a washer? I thought he was one of our aerospace brains.” “He’s taking care of Marge,” Kit said, folding the T-shirt. “These things came out nice and white, didn’t they?” She put the folded T-shirt into the laundry basket, smiling. Like an actress in a commercial. That’s what she was, Joanna felt suddenly. That’s what they all were, all the Stepford wives: actresses in commercials, pleased with detergents and floor wax, with cleansers, shampoos, and deodorants. Pretty actresses, big in the bosom but small in the talent, playing suburban housewives unconvincingly, too nicey-nice to be real.”
― Ira Levin, quote from The Stepford Wives


“One great difference between good writing, that readers overlook, and bad writing, that they fail to notice, has to do with the number of rewrites and revisions usually required by the former. It isn’t at all easy to write clear, declarative prose—transparency evolves from ruthless cutting and trimming and is hard work—while lumpy, tangle-footed writing flows from the pen as if inspired by the Muse.”
― Ira Levin, quote from The Stepford Wives



“Today the combat takes a different shape; instead of wishing to put man in a prison, woman endeavors to escape from one; she no longer seeks to drag him into the realms of immanence but to emerge, herself, into the light of transcendence. Now the attitude of the males creates a new conflict: it is with a bad grace that the man lets her go.”
― Ira Levin, quote from The Stepford Wives


About the author

Ira Levin
Born place: in The Bronx, New York City, New York, The United States
Born date August 27, 1929
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“It is funny the things that run through your mind when you're sitting in your underpants in front of a pair of strangers.”
― David Sedaris, quote from When You Are Engulfed in Flames


“Our pals over at Wikipedia make hair sounds like the sun of fresh water, saying in their snooty tone that head hair has "gained an important significance in nearly all present societies as well as any given historical period throughout the world". But then again, those lovable eggheads can make anything sound pretty serious.”
― Neil Pasricha, quote from The Book of Awesome


“An end to timidity - the replacement of the philologically tentative by the lexicographically decisive." - on the making of the Oxford English Dictionary”
― Simon Winchester, quote from The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary


“Hello, lovely. You're as pretty as pretty today.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, quote from Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception


“I didn't want to be educated. It wasn't the right time of my life for concentration, it really wasn't. The spirit of the age among the people I knew manifested itself as general drift and idleness. We didn't want money. What for? We could get by, living off parents, friends or the State And if we were going to be bored, and we were usually bored, rarely being self-motivated, we could at least be bored on our own terms, lying smashed on mattresses in ruined houses rather than working in the machine. I didn't want to work in a place where I couldn't wear my fur coat.”
― Hanif Kureishi, quote from The Buddha of Suburbia


Interesting books

Blood from a Stone
(4.3K)
Blood from a Stone
by Donna Leon
Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat
(16.3K)
Homicidal Psycho Jun...
by Bill Watterson
Netherland
(16.2K)
Netherland
by Joseph O'Neill
Violets Are Blue
(46K)
Violets Are Blue
by James Patterson
The British Museum Is Falling Down
(2.2K)
The British Museum I...
by David Lodge
The Denial of Death
(5.5K)
The Denial of Death
by Ernest Becker

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.