"Maybe it's because my mother divorced and my grandmother divorced, so maybe I'm frightened deep down. But then I also feel there is no real need. Why do I need to get married? To reassure me? No, I don't need reassurance"
About this Quote
The pivot is the line break between fear and “no real need.” Divorce is named not as doom but as data, a family pattern that might create an instinctive flinch. Then she swerves to something more subversive: the idea that marriage is primarily a technology of reassurance. If marriage is a public stamp that quiets anxiety (yours, your partner’s, your family’s, the tabloids’), Binoche is asking why anyone should outsource inner stability to an institution. The rhetorical questions aren’t uncertainty; they’re a refusal to audition for conventional respectability.
As an actress, Binoche lives inside narratives for a living, which makes this sound like an off-screen edit: she cuts the sentimental backstory before it turns into destiny. There’s also a cultural context humming beneath it - a post-60s Europe where partnership can be real without being legally consecrated, and where divorce is common enough to be less scandal than precedent. The final “No” is the clincher: not bitter, not defensive, just self-authored. She’s not rejecting love; she’s rejecting the idea that legitimacy has to be witnessed.
Quote Details
| Topic | Marriage |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Binoche, Juliette. (2026, February 16). Maybe it's because my mother divorced and my grandmother divorced, so maybe I'm frightened deep down. But then I also feel there is no real need. Why do I need to get married? To reassure me? No, I don't need reassurance. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/maybe-its-because-my-mother-divorced-and-my-146686/
Chicago Style
Binoche, Juliette. "Maybe it's because my mother divorced and my grandmother divorced, so maybe I'm frightened deep down. But then I also feel there is no real need. Why do I need to get married? To reassure me? No, I don't need reassurance." FixQuotes. February 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/maybe-its-because-my-mother-divorced-and-my-146686/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Maybe it's because my mother divorced and my grandmother divorced, so maybe I'm frightened deep down. But then I also feel there is no real need. Why do I need to get married? To reassure me? No, I don't need reassurance." FixQuotes, 16 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/maybe-its-because-my-mother-divorced-and-my-146686/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.




