Three Days in June

by Anne Tyler

Anger feels so much better than sadness. Cleaner, somehow, and more definite. But then when the anger fades, the sadness comes right back again the same as ever.

I wondered why it was that I had so many irritating people in my life.

Because isn’t that how it works, for most couples? You don’t start out with someone next to you; you start out all alone. You go through infancy and childhood and adolescence, as a rule, before you meet your other person.

And adulthood sometimes

Could I have this dance, for the rest of my life? What a cataclysmic question, when you stopped to think about it. I wondered how it was that anyone on earth ever found the courage to marry.

Sometimes when I find out what’s on other people’s minds I honestly wonder if we all live on totally separate planets.

What person in her right mind would want to go back to being a newlywed?

“Cats are not coldhearted!” I said. “They’re only protecting their dignity, in case they get rejected. ‘I’ll just reject you first,’ they’re saying.”