Maine Quotes

“You all seem to think you should marry someone when you feel this intense emotion, which you call love. And then you expect the love will fade over time, as life gets harder. When what you should do is find yourself a nice enough fellow and let real love develop over years and births and deaths and so on.”
― J Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“All of it remained, a constant reminder: He existed, then he didn't. The world spins on, indifferent to the mess.”
― J Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“...life was messy, conflict inevitable. It didn't mean you had to fall apart.”
― J Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“Timing was everything when it came to being a woman—the moment you entered the world could seal your fate.”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“He also believed that loyalty was earned - sharing a bloodline didn't mean you had to be close.”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“Ruby shook her head, but she smiled, a look that said she loved this man, loved the life they had made together. They seemed utterly comfortable with one another, like they knew each other all the way through.”
― J Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“But then you were alone, your body trying to heal itself while your mind went numb. There was a mix of joy and the purest love, couples with real boredom and occasional rage. It got easier as the kids got older, but it never got easy.”
― J Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“She didn't have a single friend on earth to see her off. She had outlived them all.”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“even if there was no God there was always the ocean- before you and after you, breathing in and out for all eternity.”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“He had been smart enough not to have children, so he would never know the peculiar sensation of caring terribly, insanely, for a person over whom you had no control; a person who was your responsibility yet no longer had to answer to you. This”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“As far as she had seen, Maggie explained, what made people and pleased them, and threatened to ultimately ruin them, was love. Not romantic love necessarily, but the love of something, the thing that defined your life. Her mother was in love with booze. While other people might have a glass or two of wine with dinner because they liked it well enough, Kathleen loved the stuff, and so it destroyed her. Her uncle Patrick and aunt Ann Marie loved status, money, appearance—that would wreck them one day, if it hadn’t already. Maggie”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“It was so bitter and sad, looking for safety in the person least likely to give it to you. Like drinking salt water, she thought. The house felt eerily quiet.”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“And anyway, once you allowed yourself to picture such a scenario, it couldn't happen. That was just the way life went.”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“Beyond those was a stretch of sand and miles of dark blue sea. You couldn't make out a thing on the other side. As a little girl, Maggie believed that the world dropped off out there, that if you swam far enough you might fall into a starry sky.”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“The dogs were partly responsible for keeping her sane. The relationship she had with them was pure joy. No ulterior motives, no spite, just love and care and kindness, exactly the emotions she wanted to cultivate.”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“Maggie wondered if in some ways all the complaining only made matters worse.”
― J Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“Her shrink had once asked whether she thought this was a reaction to her mother’s choices, and Maggie laughed, because what behavior on earth wasn’t a reaction to some mother’s choice?”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“Even after thirty-three years of marriage, Ann Marie sat at every family dinner and listened to them tell the same stories, over and over. She had never met a family so tied up in their own mythology.”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“she’s the daughter Alice never had.”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“loyalty was earned—sharing a bloodline didn’t mean you had to be close. He”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“No one had told Kathleen about the dark parts of motherhood. You gave birth and people brought over the sweetest little shoes and pale pink swaddling blankets. But then you were alone, your body trying to heal itself while your mind went numb. There was a mix of joy and the purest love, coupled with real boredom and occasional rage. It got easier as the kids got older, but it never got easy.”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“since. The dogs were partly responsible for keeping her sane. The relationship she had with them was pure joy. No ulterior motives, no spite, just love and care and kindness, exactly the emotions she wanted to cultivate.”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“she smiled, a look that said she loved this man, loved the life they had made together. They seemed utterly comfortable with one another, like they knew each other all the way through.”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“The problem with her children and grandchildren was simply that they wanted too terribly to be happy. They were always in search of it, trying to better themselves, improve upon their current situation so that they might feel no pain. They thought every problem on earth could be solved by turning inward.”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“Sometimes she thought she would have been better off procreating at twenty-two than thirty-two. Back then, she had thought she wanted four or five kids someday. She was still young and dumb enough to think it possible. Maybe that’s how mothers like Anne Marie were made — they plunged headlong into the whole endeavor before they knew any better. They weren’t selfish or greedy with their time because as adults they had never spent several Saturdays in a row lying in bed watching Meg Ryan movies on cable. They had never passed an entire weekend indoors, just because they felt like it.”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“Timing was everything when it came to being a woman - the moment you entered the world could seal your fate.”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“Parenthood by its very nature was the only job she knew of in which being successful meant rendering yourself useless.”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“They were married for forty-nine years, and every day of it, much as she loved him, Alice wished he would shut the hell up.”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Maine

“She wished she hadn’t cleaned her apartment so thoroughly in advance of the trip to Maine, so that she might have some dishes to wash, or a bathroom floor that needed scouring. She kept her place spotless. Her shrink had once asked whether she thought this was a reaction to her mother’s choices, and Maggie laughed, because what behavior on earth wasn’t a reaction to some mother’s choice?”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Maine