The Dutch House

by Ann Patchett

“The only way to really understand what money means is to have been poor,”

That night in my sister’s bed I stared at the ceiling and felt the true loss of our father. Not his money or his house, but the man I sat next to in the car. He had protected me from the world so completely that I had no idea what the world was capable of.

making it all by yourself was the only way to learn anything.

There are a few times in life when you leap up and the past that you’d been standing on falls away behind you, and the future you mean to land on is not yet in place, and for a moment you’re suspended, knowing nothing and no one, not even yourself.

Women had read about their liberation in books but not many of them

had seen what it looked like in action. Celeste had no idea what she was supposed to do with a life that was entirely her own.

“I think he was tired of being alone, that’s what I think. I think there was this big hole in his life and Andrea was always there, telling him she was the person who could fill it up, and eventually he decided to believe her.”

If you can be a king there’s no point being a jack,

“You’re picking the woman you like the best from a group of women you don’t like,” Maeve said. “Your control group is fundamentally flawed.”

Habit is a funny thing. You might think you understand it, but you can never exactly see what it looks like when you’re doing it.