Audrey's Gone AWOL Quotes

“Mothers cry because they get so little back.' He leaves the spoon in his mug, holds it to one side with a thumb and takes a sip. 'You spend your life giving everything you've got to your family. Everything: your time, your energy, the last banana in the bowl. Then your children drift away, and they don't look back; not often, not even if they're good children.”
― Annie de Monchaux, Audrey's Gone AWOL

“And motherhood is an exercise in compromise, joy, selflessness, pretence; gosh, it is far too complicated to discuss in one hour.”
― Annie de Monchaux, Audrey's Gone AWOL

“Of all the things that send women to therapy, I bet the main one is a sense of being invisible to themselves.”
― Annie de Monchaux, Audrey's Gone AWOL

“...beauty is not dependent on having no wrinkles.”
― Annie de Monchaux, Audrey's Gone AWOL

“At first, I had an overriding need to be liked, to have Simon's and his colleagues' approval. I became adept at giving people what they wanted and I created wishywashy Audrey. I guess that boils down to a sense of shame in the real me - how sad is that?”
― Annie de Monchaux, Audrey's Gone AWOL

“I became resentful, because we never spoke about it, and resentment is the silence around an unresolved thing.”
― Annie de Monchaux, Audrey's Gone AWOL

“That's motherhood for you, the great teacher of keeping silent about what I feel or might know. Motherhood and the art of pretence - I am an exemplary student, with my wistful smile spread across bleached lips, keeping up appearances.”
― Annie de Monchaux, Audrey's Gone AWOL

“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor.”
― Annie de Monchaux, Audrey's Gone AWOL

“On Joan's watch no one is allowed to stop moving unless a doctor pronounces you dead.”
― Annie de Monchaux, Audrey's Gone AWOL

“Oh, and the pillows are perfection; each one cradles my head like a midwife.”
― Annie de Monchaux, Audrey's Gone AWOL

“Listening to me is not one of Simon's strong points at the best of times. Any argument I try to put across will not make a dent in the mirrored barrier around my husband who believes himself to be staggeringly clever.”
― Annie de Monchaux, Audrey's Gone AWOL

“Young or old, French women don’t want to give up the experience of being loved for their beauty or sexual power. And it’s not just on TV, or at home, or at work – it’s everywhere.”
― Annie de Monchaux, Audrey's Gone AWOL

“Do you think about dying?’ ‘I think about living better because I know I will die. That’s the point, isn’t it? I’m acutely aware I’m closer to my death than my birth.”
― Annie de Monchaux, Audrey's Gone AWOL