"I'd lived by quotations, practically all my life"
About this Quote
Young’s persona was famously associated with uprightness and poise, and that image didn’t happen by accident. In an industry that rewarded compliance and punished mess, borrowing other people’s words can function like armor. You don’t have to reveal the raw nerve if you can reach for something aphoristic instead. A quote can be a moral compass, but it can also be a curtain: a way to gesture at meaning while keeping the private story offstage.
The phrasing “practically all my life” adds a half-smile of self-awareness. It suggests habit, maybe even dependence, as if original speech carries risk. In the mid-century celebrity ecosystem, where interviews were curated and scandals could be career-ending, the safest truth was often the one that arrived already packaged as wisdom.
Subtext: she’s not just praising literature or wit. She’s acknowledging how a woman in the public eye learned to navigate power-by paraphrasing it, filtering herself through culturally sanctioned lines, and finding freedom inside someone else’s sentence.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Young, Loretta. (2026, January 17). I'd lived by quotations, practically all my life. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/id-lived-by-quotations-practically-all-my-life-72291/
Chicago Style
Young, Loretta. "I'd lived by quotations, practically all my life." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/id-lived-by-quotations-practically-all-my-life-72291/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I'd lived by quotations, practically all my life." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/id-lived-by-quotations-practically-all-my-life-72291/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.









