Candace Bushnell

Candace Bushnell – Life, Career, and Famous Quotes

Discover the life, work, and influence of Candace Bushnell (born December 1, 1958), the American author, journalist, and creator of Sex and the City. Explore her early years, writing career, legacy, and memorable quotes.

Introduction

Candace Bushnell is an American author, journalist, and television producer, best known as the creator of the Sex and the City franchise. Born December 1, 1958 (some sources say 1959, but most authorities list 1958) in Glastonbury, Connecticut, Bushnell transformed her observations of urban dating, relationships, and social life into a cultural phenomenon.

Her career spans journalism, fiction, and television adaptation. She has written blockbuster novels such as Lipstick Jungle, 4 Blondes, The Carrie Diaries, Trading Up, and One Fifth Avenue.

Bushnell’s work is significant not only for its commercial success but also for how it reframed the conversations around modern womanhood, sex, friendship, and ambition in late 20th and early 21st-century culture.

Early Life and Family

Candace Bushnell was born in Glastonbury, Connecticut to Calvin L. Bushnell and Camille Salonia.

Her family's ancestry in the U.S. can be traced back to Francis Bushnell, who emigrated from Thatcham, Berkshire, England, in 1639.

In high school, Bushnell attended Glastonbury High School. She showed early literary ambition and, while still young, dreamed of moving to New York to make her mark as a writer.

Youth, Education & Early Steps

After high school, Bushnell enrolled at Rice University and later also studied at New York University.

At age 19, she sold a children’s story to Simon & Schuster (though it was never published).

Over time, she gravitated to more personal, observational prose about life in New York, dating, friendship, and the often complicated emotional terrain of single women in urban environments.

Career and Achievements

Sex and the City Column & Breakout Success

In 1994, Bushnell began writing a column titled “Sex and the City” for The New York Observer.

In 1996, the columns were compiled in a book also titled Sex and the City, which became a bestseller.

The column and its adaptations popularized terms, tropes, and themes — such as “serial daters,” “toxic bachelors,” and the complex interplay between independence and relationships.

Bushnell has described Carrie Bradshaw (the column’s narrator) as something of a semi-autobiographical stand-in, allowing her to tell personal truths while maintaining narrative distance.

Novels, Adaptations & Other Works

Following Sex and the City, Bushnell wrote a number of bestsellers:

• 4 Blondes (2001)

• Trading Up (2003)

• Lipstick Jungle (2005) — this novel follows three successful women navigating career, love, and personal identity in New York.

• One Fifth Avenue (2008)

• The Carrie Diaries (2010) & Summer and the City (2011) — YA prequels focusing on Carrie Bradshaw’s youth.

• Killing Monica (2015) and Is There Still Sex in the City? (2019)

Some of these works have been adapted for television: Lipstick Jungle (NBC, 2008–2009) The Carrie Diaries (The CW, 2013–2014)

Bushnell’s role also extended to producing, and she has engaged with media projects, web series, and public talking engagements.

Style, Themes & Influence

Bushnell’s writing is sharp, witty, urban, and observational. She often explores:

• The complexities of romantic life in modern cities

• The negotiation of female independence and societal expectations

• Friendship, identity, and the emotional cost of pursuit

• Glamour, ambition, and self-definition

Her influence is seen in how she reframed women’s lives in fiction — not as side characters, but as central, messy, multi-dimensional protagonists.

Her cultural imprint is large: Sex and the City entered popular culture as a defining voice for a generation of women navigating love, career, and selfhood in the urban modern age.

Legacy and Influence

Candace Bushnell’s impact is multifaceted:

1. Cultural Shaping of Women’s Narratives
   She helped open the door for stories about women’s interior lives, especially those balancing ambition, sex, solitude, and connection in public urban spaces.

2. Media Crossovers
   Her work successfully crossed from journalism to fiction to television and film, showing how personal narrative can fuel mass media.

3. Influence on Later Writers & Shows
   Many later series, novels, and creators have built on the emotional terrain she mapped — e.g., storytelling about single life, middle age, dating in a digital era.

4. Continuing Relevance
   Bushnell remains active in public dialogues around feminism, aging, dating, and the changing norms of intimacy.

5. Voice for Reinvention
   Through her later works (like Is There Still Sex in the City?), she addresses evolving phases of life, showing that story continues beyond youth.

Personality and Talents

Bushnell comes across as courageous, self-reflective, and willing to interrogate her own assumptions. In interviews, she describes herself as a “social anthropologist,” someone fascinated by human behaviors, norms, and trends.

She demonstrates:

• Emotional honesty — she’s willing to expose vulnerabilities, contradictions, and the messiness of life

• Observational acuity — she notices small social shifts and human foibles

• Versatility — shifting among journalism, fiction, television, and public speaking

• Persistence & reinvention — she has stayed relevant by evolving her topics as her own life changes

Her own life includes ups and downs: she was married to Charles Askegard (a New York City Ballet principal dancer) from 2002 to 2012.

She has also navigated the tension between being recognizable and maintaining personal life, and how her writing sometimes blurs with her identity.

Famous Quotes of Candace Bushnell

Here are some notable quotes attributed to Candace Bushnell:

• “You have to let go of who you were, to become who you will be.”

• “I think it’s a journey worth taking, really finding out who you are and what you do well.”

• “I was a freelancer all through my twenties. I did about one story a month ... the stories that I would do were precursors to Sex and the City.”

• “You don’t want to peak in high school. If you do, the rest of your life is a disaster.”

• “Rule number one: Why is it that the one time a cute guy talks to you, you have a friend who’s in crisis?”

• “The key to life is your attitude. Whether you’re single or married ... it’s how you look at your life, what you make of it.”

• “Money follows art. Money wants what it can’t buy. Class and talent.”

These reflect her recurring themes: identity, ambition, the clash between expectation and reality, and the interplay of relationships and self.

Lessons from Candace Bushnell

From Bushnell’s life and writing, several lessons emerge:

1. Tell the stories you want to see
   Bushnell wrote the kinds of stories about women she felt were missing. If you see a gap, fill it with your voice.

2. Observation is powerful
   The ordinary, the social small moments often yield bigger emotional truths.

3. Adapt and evolve
   As life phases change, your art can change too. What you write in youth doesn’t have to define everything.

4. Vulnerability resonates
   People connect to flawed, honest characters more than perfect ones.

5. Cross disciplines
   Don’t limit yourself to one medium. Journalism, fiction, TV — skills can feed into one another.

Conclusion

Candace Bushnell’s journey from Connecticut to New York’s streets, from freelance journalist to cultural icon, is a compelling story of ambition, reinvention, and voice. Her work gave language to women’s desires, frustrations, and complexity in a changing era.

If you’d like, I can also pull together a full list of her published works, adaptations, or a more extensive collection of her quotes. Would you like me to do that?