The 25 Best Lines from Sex and the City

I remember watching it for the first time when I was much too young, feeling the rare and blissful feeling you get when both the complex and superficial parts of your inner life are reflected back at you by actual characters speaking aloud. These women were so mesmerizing: outrageous, honest, sexy, chic. But the prevailing draw of the show, for me at least, is that these women enjoy their lives. They revel in the terrible men, the bad emotions, the lost loves and the absurd spending habits. So many of their words and deeds are words not to live by sure, but so many of them are. And here, in no particular order, are our 25 favorite Sex and the City quotes. 

1) “I’m looking for love. Real love. Ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can’t-live-without-each-other love.” — Carrie

A classic Carrie-ism, plucked right from the final episode. There she is: in Paris, in Dior, with everything she thought she wanted. And yet it’s not enough. The number of times I’ve almost typed this out and sent it to a one night stand who hasn’t texted me back is concerning…

2) “How did it happen that four such smart women have nothing to talk about but boyfriends?” — Miranda

This is Miranda at her best: seeing things for what they really are. The true bummer of this episode is that by the end she comes groveling back to the girls desperate to talk about her ex… almost Miranda, almost!

3) The country runs better with a good looking man in the White House. I mean, look what happened with Nixon. No one wanted to fuck him, so he fucked everyone.” — Samantha

What more is there to say? Samantha on politics (part I). A classic. No notes. 

4) “It takes half the total time you went out with someone to get over them.” — Charlotte

 While, like most Charlotte-isms, it’s not the most outrageous nor camp thing to say, I would argue that this is the dating rule from the show I’ve heard applied to real life most often. Jury’s still out on whether she’s right… although it does give you a time window within which to be a total nightmare post breakup. 

5) “I did find it interesting that a discussion about politics ultimately became a discussion about sex. And a discussion about sex ultimately became a question of politics. Which led me to wonder if the two weren’t in fact inextricably linked, and if so, can there be sex without politics?” — Carrie

Sometimes Carrie’s columns were spot on.