"I did try to leave, and she came running after me"
About this Quote
The line works because it compresses a whole narrative of celebrity intimacy into one breath: conflict, spectacle, and the need for an audience even when the audience is only implied. "Running" is doing a lot of work. It's cinematic, physical, dramatic in a way ordinary breakups rarely are. It suggests urgency and vulnerability, but it also suggests performance: the kind of motion you can picture through a paparazzi lens. Gest, a producer and social figure, understood how stories get told in the gossip ecosystem. He offers a clean emotional arc with cast roles already assigned.
Subtextually, it's also reputation management. By presenting her as chasing and himself as leaving, he claims moral high ground while still keeping the relationship charged and memorable. It's not a confession so much as a miniature press release: romance as proof of importance, conflict as proof the feelings were real.
Quote Details
| Topic | Romantic |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Gest, David. (n.d.). I did try to leave, and she came running after me. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-did-try-to-leave-and-she-came-running-after-me-86683/
Chicago Style
Gest, David. "I did try to leave, and she came running after me." FixQuotes. Accessed February 2, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-did-try-to-leave-and-she-came-running-after-me-86683/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I did try to leave, and she came running after me." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-did-try-to-leave-and-she-came-running-after-me-86683/. Accessed 2 Feb. 2026.









