"I think I'm finally growing up - and about time"
About this Quote
The line lands like a champagne toast with a hangover lurking underneath. Elizabeth Taylor saying, "I think I'm finally growing up - and about time" is funny because it treats maturity as both achievement and overdue bill. The dash does the heavy lifting: a pause for self-assessment, then the punch of self-rebuke. It's the sound of someone who knows the public has been keeping score.
Taylor's context matters because she was denied a normal timeline. She was famous before she had any chance to be private, marketed as a child, mythologized as a woman, and endlessly audited for her marriages, her glamour, her appetites. "Growing up" in her case isn't about learning to pay rent on time; it's about reclaiming authorship from a culture that wrote her as an archetype: temptress, victim, diva, cautionary tale. The sly humility ("I think") signals she doesn't fully trust the narrative either - as if maturity, like fame, is another costume that never quite fits.
The subtext is a negotiation with judgment. "About time" nods to the chorus of critics who framed her life as indulgent and chaotic, but it also hints at exhaustion: the cost of living at maximum volume for decades. It's a late-career wink that doubles as a boundary. She gets to be the one who declares the turning point, not the tabloids, not the studio system, not the ex-husbands. Even in self-deprecation, there's control - Taylor rewriting her legend in a single, perfectly timed beat.
Taylor's context matters because she was denied a normal timeline. She was famous before she had any chance to be private, marketed as a child, mythologized as a woman, and endlessly audited for her marriages, her glamour, her appetites. "Growing up" in her case isn't about learning to pay rent on time; it's about reclaiming authorship from a culture that wrote her as an archetype: temptress, victim, diva, cautionary tale. The sly humility ("I think") signals she doesn't fully trust the narrative either - as if maturity, like fame, is another costume that never quite fits.
The subtext is a negotiation with judgment. "About time" nods to the chorus of critics who framed her life as indulgent and chaotic, but it also hints at exhaustion: the cost of living at maximum volume for decades. It's a late-career wink that doubles as a boundary. She gets to be the one who declares the turning point, not the tabloids, not the studio system, not the ex-husbands. Even in self-deprecation, there's control - Taylor rewriting her legend in a single, perfectly timed beat.
Quote Details
| Topic | Self-Improvement |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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