The Last of the Stanfields

by Marc Levy

“There are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the truth. And no one is lying.” Robert Evans

Like every family, mine is dysfunctional. Here as well, we find two distinct groups: families who admit it, and families who don’t and go on pretending.

Prejudice is the prerogative of people convinced they know everything.

“The key to lasting love is knowing how to give.”

don’t waste a single moment feeling sorry for yourself. When

The strange part is that it took traveling to the ends of the earth for me to realize that what I was looking for was right there in front of me the whole time. All I had to do was open my eyes and start noticing the wonder of the world outside my front door.

What good was vengeance if it did nothing to change the past, to erase what had happened?

Shafts of moonlight streamed into the loft through the skylights, filled with little specks of floating dust.

I had to leave my family to learn to love them again.

I found suburban life to be suffocating and unbearable.

“There are only two types of men in this world,” Sally-Anne replied with a chiding smile. “Men with problems and men with solutions.”

Khalil Gibran wrote: But memory is an autumn leaf that murmurs a while in the wind and then is heard no more.

There’s no lie without a bit of truth to it, especially when you lie to yourself.

you can never really get rid of a lie you’ve convinced yourself is true.

Reach for the stars, my darling. Make the most of your life,

It was a long, passionate kiss, the type that makes you forget where you are . . . unforgettable and full of tenderness. It didn’t seem like a first kiss at all, strangely enough. It was so familiar and natural, it felt like we had known each other forever.

Because at times we need lies, or things left unsaid, to avoid facing certain earth-shattering truths.

When an old person dies, it’s as though a library has burnt to the ground.