"If you go into a relationship expecting someone else to fill you up, you're doomed right off"
About this Quote
The specific intent is corrective. O'Neill isn't warning against intimacy; she's warning against outsourcing your interior life. The subtext is about agency and pressure: when you enter a relationship as a repair project, you quietly draft your partner into a job they never applied for. They become responsible for your self-worth, your stability, your happiness - and resentment blooms on both sides. The "doomed" part isn't moralizing; it's pragmatic. Neediness isn't the sin. It's the contract you didn't disclose.
Context matters because it reads like hard-earned wisdom from someone who has lived in public, where romance is often marketed as salvation and women, especially, are trained to treat being chosen as proof of being whole. O'Neill's actress background adds an extra edge: she's describing the difference between performance and sustenance. A partner can witness your life, even deepen it, but they can't be the main character you forgot to write for yourself.
Quote Details
| Topic | Self-Love |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
O'Neill, Jennifer. (2026, January 15). If you go into a relationship expecting someone else to fill you up, you're doomed right off. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-you-go-into-a-relationship-expecting-someone-153577/
Chicago Style
O'Neill, Jennifer. "If you go into a relationship expecting someone else to fill you up, you're doomed right off." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-you-go-into-a-relationship-expecting-someone-153577/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"If you go into a relationship expecting someone else to fill you up, you're doomed right off." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-you-go-into-a-relationship-expecting-someone-153577/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.







