--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Good girls like myself need subversion…" description: "\"Good girls like myself need subversion. Being solemn, I aspire to comedy. Being a novelist, I aspire to the musical. Being organized, I aspire to lumin..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/948/janet-burroway-32021_chaos_good-girls-like-myself-need-subversion-b_1946194.jpg" --- # Good girls like myself need subversion. Being solemn, I… ![“Good girls like myself need subversion. Being solemn, I aspire to comedy. Being a novelist, I aspire to the musical. Being organized, I aspire to luminous chaos. Loving the power of grammar and the fine distinctions of language, I seek the part of the mind I didn't know was there, the part…” quote by Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/948/janet-burroway-32021_chaos_good-girls-like-myself-need-subversion-b_1946194.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/948/janet-burroway-32021_chaos_good-girls-like-myself-need-subversion-b_1946194.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/948/janet-burroway-32021_chaos_good-girls-like-myself-need-subversion-b_1946194.jpg) > “Good girls like myself need subversion. Being solemn, I aspire to comedy. Being a novelist, I aspire to the musical. Being organized, I aspire to luminous chaos. Loving the power of grammar and the fine distinctions of language, I seek the part of the mind I didn't know was there, the part 'sheer,' 'no-manfathomed,' 'cliffs of fall.” [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The speaker seeks to subvert expectations, blending seriousness with humor and order with chaos, driven by a love of language and hidden mental depths. **In simple terms:** Embrace contradictions to explore creativity. Key Takeaway Use paradox to fuel artistic growth. Themes creativity identity language subversion Mood playful introspective Type literary artistic When to use this quote - writing - performance art - personal development - creative workshops - literary analysis Key Concepts postmodernism self‑exploration Questions to Reflect On - What hidden parts of your mind can art reveal? - How does chaos enhance your creative process? A Different Perspective Risk of incoherence if contradictions aren’t integrated. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Chaos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/chaos/) [Comedy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/comedy/) [Distinction](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/distinction/) [Girl](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/girl/) [Good girls](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/good-girls/) [Grammar](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/grammar/) [Humor](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/humor/) [Language](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/language/) [Mind](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mind/) [Novelists](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/novelists/) [Solemn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/solemn/) [Subversion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/subversion/) ## Related quotes > [“how fine our distinctions when we cannot choose”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-lowell/how-fine-our-distinctions-when-we-cannot-choose/) [Robert Lowell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-lowell/) > [“Why do good girls like bad boys? Because when they’re bad, they’re good.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cortez-law-iii/why-do-good-girls-like-bad-boys-because-when-they-re-bad-they-re-good/) [Cortez Law III](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/cortez-law-iii/) > [“Why do good girls like bad boys?”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cortez-law-iii/why-do-good-girls-like-bad-boys/) [Cortez Law III](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/cortez-law-iii/) > [“Good girls like Breanna like to look, but they don’t like to touch.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katie-mcgarry/good-girls-like-breanna-like-to-look-but-they-don-t-like-to-touch/) [Katie McGarry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katie-mcgarry/) > [Good girls like bad boys.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/obviously-me-p/good-girls-like-bad-boys/) Obviously Me :p > [It's an interesting time that way. It's hard to meet good girls down here. It seems like they're all after something and interested in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/scott-speedman/it-s-an-interesting-time-that-way-it-s-hard-to-meet-good-girls-down/) [Scott Speedman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/scott-speedman/) > [Satire is meant to have teeth; satire is meant to be dangerous. But it also happens to be fun because subversion and telling the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-cusack/satire-is-meant-to-have-teeth-satire-is-meant-to-be-dangerous-but-it/) [John Cusack](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-cusack/) > [Agents of disruption, subversion, sabotage and disinformation tunnelers and smugglers, listeners and forgers, trainers and recruiters and talent spotters and couriers and watchers and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-le-carre/agents-of-disruption-subversion-sabotage-and-disinformation-tunnelers/) [John le Carre](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-le-carre/) > [“I had artistic classical training, and when you learn the classics for so many years, you might gain audacity, power and confidence to subvert…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nuno-roque/i-had-artistic-classical-training-and-when-you-learn-the-classics-for/) Nuno Roque > [In most circles, the idea of economic planning has been in disrepute most of the time and, particularly in America, has almost carried connotations…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gunnar-myrdal/in-most-circles-the-idea-of-economic-planning-has-been-in-disrepute/) [Gunnar Myrdal](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gunnar-myrdal/) > [And who can doubt that it will lead to the worst disorders when minds created free by God are compelled to submit slavishly to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/galileo-galilei/and-who-can-doubt-that-it-will-lead-to-the-worst-disorders-when-minds/) [Galileo Galilei](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/galileo-galilei/) > [“Forget subversion. The point is self-subversion, overthrowing the power structure in your own head. The enemy is the mind's tendency to systematize, sew up…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/simon-reynolds/forget-subversion-the-point-is-self-subversion-overthrowing-the-power/) [Simon Reynolds](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/simon-reynolds/) > [“The truth unquestionably is, that the only path to a subversion of the republican system of the Country is, by flattering the prejudices of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-hamilton/the-truth-unquestionably-is-that-the-only-path-to-a-subversion-of-the/) [Alexander Hamilton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-hamilton/) > [Politicians can forgive almost anything in the way of abuse; they can forgive subversion, revolution, being contradicted, exposed as liars, even ridiculed, but they…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/auberon-waugh/politicians-can-forgive-almost-anything-in-the-way-of-abuse-they-can/) [Auberon Waugh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/auberon-waugh/) > [“Zeena Schreck believes that the right-hand path and the left-hand path have traditionally had the same end goal; it is only the method that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/zeena-schreck/zeena-schreck-believes-that-the-right-hand-path-and-the-left-hand/) [Zeena Schreck](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/zeena-schreck/) ## More by Janet Burroway > [The mystique and the false glamour of the writing profession grow partly out of a mistaken belief that people who can express profound ideas…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/the-mystique-and-the-false-glamour-of-the-writing-profession-grow/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) > [What is the pattern of change?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/what-is-the-pattern-of-change/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) > [The sensation of writing a book is the sensation of spinning, blinded by love and daring. It is the sensation of rearing and peering…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/the-sensation-of-writing-a-book-is-the-sensation-of-spinning-blinded-2/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) > [Most writing is done between the mind and the hand, not between the hand and the page.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/most-writing-is-done-between-the-mind-and-the-hand-not-between-the/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) > [In literature only trouble is interesting. It takes trouble to turn the great themes of life into a story: birth, love, sex, work, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/in-literature-only-trouble-is-interesting-it-takes-trouble-to-turn/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) > [If character is the foreground of fiction, setting is the background, and as in a painting's composition, the foreground may be in harmony or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/if-character-is-the-foreground-of-fiction-setting-is-the-background/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) > [I sit and pass judgment on myself: this is dull, this is unclear, this is insignificant: ergo I am dull, I am unclear, I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/i-sit-and-pass-judgment-on-myself-this-is-dull-this-is-unclear-this/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) > [The only justification for writing a novel is that it should be wonderful. Adequate is inadequate.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/the-only-justification-for-writing-a-novel-is-that-it-should-be/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) > [In Literature, only trouble is interesting.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/in-literature-only-trouble-is-interesting/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) > [What matters is not publication or success (success is bad for your prose) but the practice of the imaginative act. Our damaged values depend…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/what-matters-is-not-publication-or-success-success-is-bad-for-your/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) > [The human desire to know why is as powerful as the desire to know what happened next, and it is a desire of a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/the-human-desire-to-know-why-is-as-powerful-as-the-desire-to-know/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) > [“Don't dread. Do.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/don-t-dread-do/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) > [Reject without regret whatever seems on reflection wrongheaded, dull, destructive, or irrelevant to your vision. It’s just as important to be able to discriminate…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/reject-without-regret-whatever-seems-on-reflection-wrongheaded-dull/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) > [Right now-whether you're in writing courses getting "paid" in credit for writing, or burdened and distracted by earning a living and changing diapers-figure out…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/right-now-whether-you-re-in-writing-courses-getting-paid-in-credit/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) > [Part of the trouble is that I've never properly understood that some disasters accumulate, that they don't all land like a child out of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/part-of-the-trouble-is-that-i-ve-never-properly-understood-that-some/) [Janet Burroway](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) [Explore all 16 Janet Burroway quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/) ## More Chaos quotes > [Mankind have been slow to believe that order reigns in the universe-that the world is a cosmos and a chaos.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-a-garfield/mankind-have-been-slow-to-believe-that-order-reigns-in-the-universe/) [James A. Garfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-a-garfield/) > [If I meet a wise person, I think, 'Yes, tell me more about parenting, about marriage, about how to stay in love. Tell me…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/min-jin-lee/if-i-meet-a-wise-person-i-think-yes-tell-me-more-about-parenting/) [Min Jin Lee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/min-jin-lee/) > [We do not want to be reminded that it is we, the indigenous people, who are poor and exploited in the land of our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steven-biko/we-do-not-want-to-be-reminded-that-it-is-we-the-indigenous-people-who/) [Steven Biko](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steven-biko/) > [I love Derrick Brown for the surprise of one word waking up next to another. One moment tender, funny or romantic, the next, visceral,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-fitch/i-love-derrick-brown-for-the-surprise-of-one-word-waking-up-next-to/) [Janet Fitch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-fitch/) > [Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-adams/chaos-often-breeds-life-when-order-breeds-habit/) [Henry Adams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-adams/) > [Throughout human history, as our species has faced the frightening, terrorizing fact that we do not know who we are, or where we are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-leary/throughout-human-history-as-our-species-has-faced-the-frightening/) [Timothy Leary](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-leary/) > [There seems to be a kind of order in the universe…in the movement of the stars and the turning of the Earth and the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katherine-anne-porter/there-seems-to-be-a-kind-of-order-in-the-universe-in-the-movement-of/) [Katherine Anne Porter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katherine-anne-porter/) > [In the ring, there's not a lot of room for mistakes. You're in a place that is chaos, that is on fire. That ring…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/teddy-atlas/in-the-ring-there-s-not-a-lot-of-room-for-mistakes-you-re-in-a-place/) [Teddy Atlas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/teddy-atlas/) > [“It was her chaos that made her beautiful. ”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/atticus-poetry/it-was-her-chaos-that-made-her-beautiful/) [Atticus Poetry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/atticus-poetry/) > [What we should have done is kept the same team that played in the '95 World Series. Those trades (Eddie Murray & Carlos Baerga)…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albert-belle/what-we-should-have-done-is-kept-the-same-team-that-played-in-the-95/) [Albert Belle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albert-belle/) > [American civil rights leader, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? Lynching is a murder. For the past four hundred years our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/malcolm-x/american-civil-rights-leader-where-do-we-go-from-here-chaos-or/) [Malcolm X](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/malcolm-x/) > [“There was beauty in chaos, she'd just never known it before.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amanda-linsmeier/there-was-beauty-in-chaos-she-d-just-never-known-it-before/) [Amanda Linsmeier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amanda-linsmeier/) > [Who’s to say that it takes something like a drug to mess with your perception of reality? How did Hitler deceive a nation? How…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ted-dekker/who-s-to-say-that-it-takes-something-like-a-drug-to-mess-with-your/) [Ted Dekker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ted-dekker/) > [And yet, I do believe there is ultimately meaning in the chaos, and also in the doldrums. What I resist is not the truth…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-lamott/and-yet-i-do-believe-there-is-ultimately-meaning-in-the-chaos-and/) [Anne Lamott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-lamott/) > [I came to think of myself, not as a dance and chaos of molecules, but as a brief and minute portion of that majestic…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/will-durant/i-came-to-think-of-myself-not-as-a-dance-and-chaos-of-molecules-but/) [Will Durant](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/will-durant/) [Browse all 2,640 Chaos quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/chaos/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Good girls like myself need subversion. Being solemn, I aspire to comedy. Being a novelist, I aspire to the musical. Being organized, I aspire to luminous chaos. Loving the power of grammar and the fine distinctions of language, I seek the part of the mind I didn't know was there, the part 'sheer,' 'no-manfathomed,' 'cliffs of fall.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Janet Burroway" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/good-girls-like-myself-need-subversion-being-solemn-i-aspire-to/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Chaos" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/good-girls-like-myself-need-subversion-being-solemn-i-aspire-to/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/948/janet-burroway-32021_chaos_good-girls-like-myself-need-subversion-b_1946194.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/948/janet-burroway-32021_chaos_good-girls-like-myself-need-subversion-b_1946194.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/948/janet-burroway-32021_chaos_good-girls-like-myself-need-subversion-b_1946194.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Good girls like myself need subversion. Being solemn, I aspire to comedy. Being a novelist, I aspire to the…” — Janet Burroway", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Janet Burroway", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-burroway/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Good girls like myself need subversion....", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/good-girls-like-myself-need-subversion-being-solemn-i-aspire-to/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-burroway/good-girls-like-myself-need-subversion-being-solemn-i-aspire-to/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```