Throughout this book, I’ve been carrying on about men and finding them and getting them and keeping them and deciding whether or not to kill them, and if so, how, and so on. And that’s all funny and mostly true and all that, but the real truth is you are enough — just the way you are, just who you are. You are a complete entity, a whole person, right there in the skin you’re in. You don’t need to have a guy to be happy. Admit it: You have more fun with a gang of girlfriends than you’ve had on the absolute best date of your entire life. If somebody comes along who treats you right and makes you happy and you can do the same for him, well, that’s just dandy. But I’m telling you, the only way that I know to get and keep a happy, healthy relationship is first to create a happy and healthy life for yourself without one. This is your life to live.
— Jill Conner Browne, The Sweet Potato Queens’ Field Guide to Men, p. 206