Alexander R. > Alexander's Quotes

“Buckley kept the shoe on his dresser, until one day it wasn’t there anymore and no amount of looking for it could turn it up.”
― Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones

“Don’t do it, Eleanor told the little girl; insist on your cup of stars; once they have trapped you into being like everyone else you will never see your cup of stars again; don’t do it; and the little girl glanced at her, and smiled a little subtle, dimpling, wholly comprehending smile, and shook her head stubbornly at the glass. Brave girl, Eleanor thought; wise, brave girl.”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“The house was vile. She shivered and thought, the words coming freely into her mind, Hill House is vile, it is diseased; get away from here at once.”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

“An indefinite longing, that she had been only vaguely conscious of at times before, became now a recognizable wish. It was so absurd, so embarrassing a desire, that Therese thrust it from her mind.”
― Claire Morgan, The Price of Salt

“Is there a word? A friend, a companion, or maybe just a sharer. What good are words? I mean, I think people often try to find through sex, things that are much easier to find in other ways.”
― Claire Morgan, The Price of Salt

“Therese looked in vain, even for the dangling string. "Why did you do it?" Her voice was shrill with tears. "It was such a beautiful kite!" "It's only a kite!" Richard repeated. "I can make another kite!”
― Claire Morgan, The Price of Salt

“Happiness was like a green vine spreading through her, stretching fine tendrils, bearing flowers through her flesh. She had a vision of a pale-white flower, shimmering as if seen in darkness, or through water. Why did people talk of heaven, she wondered.”
― Claire Morgan, The Price of Salt

“While a thousand memories and moments, words, the first darling, the second time Carol had met her at the store, a thousand memories of Carol's face, her voice, moments of anger and laughter flashed like the tail of a comet across her brain. And now it was pale-blue distance and space, an expanding space in which she took flight suddenly like a long arrow.”
― Claire Morgan, The Price of Salt

“And she did not have to ask if this were right, no one had to tell her, because this could not have been more right or perfect.”
― Claire Morgan, The Price of Salt

“Does he still talk about it?" "No. Is it anything to talk about? Is it anything to be proud of?" "Is it anything to be ashamed of?" "Yes. You know that, don't you?" Carol asked in her even, distinct voice. "In the eyes of the world it's an abomination.”
― Claire Morgan, The Price of Salt

“How was it possible to be afraid and in love, Therese thought. The two things did not go together. How was it possible to be afraid, when the two of them grew stronger together every day? And every night. Every night was different, and every morning. Together they possessed a miracle.”
― Claire Morgan, The Price of Salt

“But home isn’t where you land; home is where you launch. You can’t pick your home any more than you can choose your family. In poker, you get five cards. Three of them you can swap out, but two are yours to keep: family and native land.”
― Tayari Jones, An American Marriage

“It was a wonderful feeling to be grown and yet young. To be married but not settled. To be tied down yet free.”
― Tayari Jones, An American Marriage

“Sometimes when you like where you end up, you don’t care how you got there.”
― Tayari Jones, An American Marriage

“Then, I didn’t know that our bodies can know things before they happen, so when my eyes suddenly filled with tears, I thought this was the unpredictable effect of emotion.”
― Tayari Jones, An American Marriage

“When a man wails like that you know it’s all the tears that he was never allowed to shed, from Little League disappointment to teenage heartbreak, all the way to whatever injured his spirit just last year.”
― Tayari Jones, An American Marriage

“Our house isn’t simply empty, our home has been emptied. Love makes a place in your life, it makes a place for itself in your bed. Invisibly, it makes a place in your body, rerouting all your blood vessels, throbbing right alongside your heart. When it’s gone, nothing is whole again.”
― Tayari Jones, An American Marriage

“My girlfriend at the time wasn’t keen on meeting Celestial; even she could tell from the way I pronounced her name that my feelings were more than friendly.”
― Tayari Jones, An American Marriage

“There should be a word for this, the way it feels to steal something that’s already yours.”
― Tayari Jones, An American Marriage

“Son,” my father said, gripping the dessert spoon like a pitchfork. “I have one thing to say to you, as a black man: Roy is a hostage of the state. He is a victim of America. The least you could do is unhand his wife when he gets back.”
― Tayari Jones, An American Marriage

“All Olive wanted was to see this day. That was all she ever asked for and she’s not here to experience it. You’re home and we’re sitting here eating other women’s food. I know the Lord has a plan, but this isn’t right.”
― Tayari Jones, An American Marriage

“But how you feel love and understand love are two different things. Now, so many years down the road, I recognize that I was alone and adrift and that he was lonely in the way that only a ladies’ man can be. He reminded me of Atlanta, and I reminded him of the same. All these were reasons why we were drawn to each other, but standing with him outside of Maroons, we were past reason. Human emotion is beyond comprehension, smooth and uninterrupted, like an orb made of blown glass.”
― Tayari Jones, An American Marriage

“That’s your fate as a black man. Carried by six or judged by twelve.”
― Tayari Jones, An American Marriage

“No.” She shook her head. “You can blame me for a lot but not for that. When I told her, she shook her head, looked up at the ceiling, and said, ‘God sure is funny. Sending Othaniel to the rescue.’ Your daddy thinks she gave up, but that’s not what it was. When she knew you weren’t by yourself, she could finally let go.”
― Tayari Jones, An American Marriage

“I kissed her finger near the base, where my ring once rested. “Georgia,” I said, beginning a sentence I couldn’t bear to complete. “I tried,” she began. “Shhh . . . Just sleep, Georgia. Just sleep.” But neither of us closed our eyes against the immeasurable dark of that silent night.”
― Tayari Jones, An American Marriage

“It is funny the crazy things our brains make up to save us from the truth.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Evidence of the Affair

“I guess I find it pretty easy to look like nothing is happening when everything has changed.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Evidence of the Affair

“It is as if I have lived with a hard shell all over my body and you have cracked it and it has all fallen off. I am fresh again.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Evidence of the Affair

“Do you ever feel like your life got away from you somehow?”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Evidence of the Affair

“Lying has just become so much easier than telling the truth. I don’t remember when things got so hard. But life has been a matter of keeping our heads above water for years now.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Evidence of the Affair