Familia Quotes

“If you write, you're a writer. If you paint, you're a painter. If you sing, you're a singer. You may be a total shit writer, or painter, or singer--but that doesn't make you any less of one.”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia

“Miguel, Beatríz, and Sister Blanca carried on with their lives, knowing they had been instruments of God, or fate, or the universe—depending on the person and the day.”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia

“I’ve known this woman for five minutes, and she’s just given some of the best, most powerful advice I’ve ever gotten in my life.”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia

“So, you have to decide how much imperfection you are willing to live with.”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia

“No matter how you slice it, the truth of one life turns the other into a lie.”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia

“This is when I knew I must stop with the drinking and the drugs. Because I know then you would find her—you would find our Marianna and bring her home.”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia

“I’ll be damned if the sonofabitch isn’t sober! My father looks like any other middle-aged Puerto Rican man. And I’m having trouble getting my head around it.”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia

“Good thing she’s got some money, because she’s gonna need a really good therapist to work through this shitshow. We both are.”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia

“If you live back there—back in the past—you’ll never get over the things that have happened to you. And if you live in the future—always imagining the perfect sister, or job, or family—you’ll never appreciate everything that’s right in front of you.”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia

“But there are times . . . there are times when I get so frustrated, because the only thing standing in the way of your happiness is you. It’s as if you’re determined to stay that angry, lonely, distrusting girl I met all those years ago.”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia

“My husband isn’t a loud man. And he’s not the kind of guy who loses his temper or his patience easily. So, for him to come to this place is very unusual for him—and very disconcerting for me.”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia

“I’ve spoken to Matéo. I know about the grants and the interest from that advertising agency. So don’t you dare stand there and talk to me about being too afraid to put myself out there!”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia

“I experience anger, frustration, embarrassment, amusement, relief, gratitude, and awe. And it’s exhausting. Because being around Isabella is like being on a roller coaster—terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia

“Before Beatríz had become the whore of Satan.”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia

“If he actually had killed the cocksucker, his mother would still be alive now. But Coquí hadn’t stopped him when he had the chance, and he’d lived with that guilt every moment of every day ever since.”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia

“I’m terribly sorry, I totally forgot I was supposed to report all my life events to you. Should I have alerted you to the fact that my daughter had a baby last summer?”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia

“For as long as she could remember, Beatríz had been drawn to the bad boys. Who wanted to go to bed with dull and deferential when you could have dark and dangerous? And Santiago was nothing if not dark and dangerous.”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia

“That being said, there’s also a razor-sharp edge that comes with her particular brand of self-assuredness. It’s the kind of hardness that you find in people who are street-savvy—the ones used to fending for themselves.”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia

“Fast-forward to the twenty-first century, when your enemies are much more insidious—disease, poverty, civil unrest, and humanity’s ever-weakening moral center are the biggest threats to our modern existence. There isn’t a fort on the planet that could protect us from that kind of destruction.”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia

“Interested” is an understatement. I’ve been a thorn in Detective Miguel Alvarez’s side for literally decades now.”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia

“I don’t need you to go play Sherlock Holmes on my account. I already know where Marianna is. She’s standing right in front of me.” “Yeah, well,”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia

“Isabella, I’m not sure what you want me to say. She’s telling you straight-up that she doesn’t believe the results are legit.”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia

“Damn, this guy knows how to harness his hotness! It must be a British thing, because I can’t think of a single American man who can turn a frown upside down faster than the Surrey-born Maxwell Taylor-Davies.”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia

“The truth is the truth, and no amount of spinning, bald-faced lying, or underhanded fuckery can change that. As Shakespeare once wrote: The truth will out. It’s just a matter of time.”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia

“There were drinks—lots of drinks. There were always lots of drinks since Rosaria had died seven months ago. It was the only way he could get through the day.”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia

“It offered protection—if only for a few hours—from the brutal realities laid bare by the rising sun.”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia

“there’s anything I hope you take away from this book, it’s a reminder to appreciate the culture and history we inherit with our DNA.”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia

“My truth may not be the same as your truth—but they might still be . . . the truth.”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia

“I know. It's ironic, isn't it? For all these years, you've been looking for Marianna... and somewhere along the way, you lost Isabella.”
― Lauren E. Rico, Familia