The Ten Year Affair Quotes

“Some nebulous sense of closure? Closure never came. There was only forgetting. There was only the slow passage of time, and rooting for the fallibility of your own brain. Rooting for the day you’d wake up and the particulars would be gone, deleted to make way for something else.”
― Erin Somers, The Ten Year Affair

“Your body is going to a grave, said the woman. To a landfill. It's a single-use item. You might as well wreck it.”
― Erin Somers, The Ten Year Affair

“That had been Eliot at his most charming. He’d given it to her as she was waking up. It was extravagant—they had no money—which made it even better. Early on, she had not thought the person who had bought her the imperfectly hammered gold disk could be diminished by familiarity, or her interest in him could fade. That was something that happened to other people, though which specific traits distinguished her from those people she wasn't sure.”
― Erin Somers, The Ten Year Affair

“She had not told anyone about Sam, not even Isabelle. She thought her punishment should be that she had to shoulder it alone. She agreed with Jules about this. She did not deserve absolution. She should look like shit. She should have to endure that assessment from her mother, for the millionth time, and from whoever else wanted to make it.”
― Erin Somers, The Ten Year Affair

“Over and over, you had to commit to the task of living. You had to insist on resilience, spring back from defeat.”
― Erin Somers, The Ten Year Affair

“A lover should beg. This was maybe the most important qualification: that the man should be willing to make himself pathetic. That he should grovel at the feet of the woman's excellence.”
― Erin Somers, The Ten Year Affair

“Her whole life, people had railed on about her personality. Such a smart girl—woman! Such a smart woman. And funny. It got worse (better) as she got older. Kind, empathetic, a good parent. That was nice, right? That was what you wanted. But couldn't this one man objectify her?”
― Erin Somers, The Ten Year Affair

“Everything is a little worse now. Have you noticed that?”
― Erin Somers, The Ten Year Affair: A Novel

“They’d had sex for the last time on that morning in Manhattan. They had the room and the lighting was flattering. A large mirror faced the bed. It seemed”
― Erin Somers, The Ten Year Affair

“That had been Eliot at his most charming. He’d given it to her as she was waking up. It was extravagant—they had no money—which made it even better. Early on”
― Erin Somers, The Ten Year Affair

“How aware was he of what was going on? He was not observant in general”
― Erin Somers, The Ten Year Affair

“Opal’s intelligence was a spring that ran cool and brisk. Cora didn’t fully know its depths. If a child could figure out how to spatchcock a chicken”
― Erin Somers, The Ten Year Affair