"Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from"
About this Quote
The subtext is blunt: normal is often just consensus wearing a lab coat. It’s a standard built from whoever has the power to define what’s acceptable - in gender, sexuality, ambition, even how much intensity you’re allowed to have in public. Foster’s career has repeatedly rewarded characters who refuse that bargain: women whose intelligence makes them “difficult,” whose solitude reads as deviance, whose difference becomes insight. The quote works because it smuggles a critique of social control into a casual phrase. It sounds like self-help, but it’s really about conformity as soft coercion.
Context matters, too: Foster’s generation watched “normal” get sold as stability amid culture wars, tabloid moralizing, and an entertainment industry that punishes anyone who can’t be easily branded. “Get away from” isn’t reckless; it’s directional. It implies motion toward a life designed on purpose, not inherited expectations. Normal isn’t the problem. Treating it as the goal is.
Quote Details
| Topic | Motivational |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Foster, Jodie. (2026, January 15). Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/normal-is-not-something-to-aspire-to-its-67243/
Chicago Style
Foster, Jodie. "Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/normal-is-not-something-to-aspire-to-its-67243/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/normal-is-not-something-to-aspire-to-its-67243/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.








