Sharp Objects Quotes

“A veces mis cicatrices tienen vida propia.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“She had an invisible friend, a giant stuffed bear she called Ben. What kind of kid has an imaginary friend that’s a stuffed animal? She collected hair ribbons and arranged them in alphabetical order by color name. She was the kind of girl who exploited her cuteness with such joy you couldn’t begrudge her.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“My mother breezed in, smelling like bright blue water. She looked more comfortable in the Nash house than Mrs. Nash did. It was a natural gift for Adora, making other women feel incidental.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“You know how people sometimes say they have to hurt because if they don’t, they’re so numb they won’t feel anything?” “Mmm.” “What if it’s the opposite?” Amma whispered. “What if you hurt because it feels so good? Like you have a tingling, like someone left a switch on in your body. And nothing can turn the switch off except hurting? What does that mean?”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“Camille, do you ever feel like bad things are going to happen, and you can’t stop them? You can’t do anything, you just have to wait?”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“Camille, non hai mai la sensazione che stia per accadere qualcosa di orribile e che tu non possa fare niente per evitarlo? La sensazione di poter solo aspettare?”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“Talvolta è davvero tutto troppo rumoroso.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“I jammed a floppy blue teddy bear under my head, then felt guilty and returned him to the foot of the bed. One should have allegiance to one's childhood things.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“The face you give the world tells the world how to treat you, my mother used to say whenever I resisted her grooming.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“I think she’s sick, and I think what she has is contagious”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“He’s as smooth and shallow as glass.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“The gesture—so random and kind—baffled me. Is this what mothers did, wonder if you might need safety pins? Mine phoned once a month and always asked the same practical questions (grades, classes, upcoming expenses).”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“the grin was gone. Natalie Keene’s lips caved in around her gums in a small circle.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“She began walking away from me, down the hallway—luminous white living rooms and sitting rooms and reading rooms blooming out on all sides—and I studied her. It was the first time we’d seen each other in almost a year. My hair was a different color—brown from red—but she didn’t seem to notice. She looked exactly the same, though, not much older than I am now, although she’s in her late forties. Glowing pale skin,”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“I had my share of fun,' I said. 'Looks and money get you a long way in Wind Gap.'

'And brains?'

'Brains you hide.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“She had perfect skin, so free of blotches or wrinkles, her face so perfect and character-free she could have just popped out of the womb. They all seemed unfinished. I wanted them to go away.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“Curry was wrong: Being an insider here was more distracting than useful.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“How do you keep safe when your whole day is as wide and empty as the sky? Anything could happen.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“My story for the day was a limp sort of evil.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“Sick and sicker and sickest. What was real and what was fake? Was Amma really sick and needing my mother’s medicine, or was the medicine what was making Amma sick? Did her blue pill make me vomit, or did it keep me from getting more ill than I’d have been without it?”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“violent little girls.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“What a pure way to die.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“It seemed to me that she'd been expelled into this world not quite formed,”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“Tears ran down my mother’s cheeks and dripped loudly onto the leather purse she held in her lap. The woman next to her patted her hand. I slipped my notepad from my jacket pocket and began scribbling notes to one side until my mother slapped her hand on mine and hissed, “You are being disrespectful and embarrassing. Stop or I will make you leave.” I quit writing but kept the pad out, feeling stabbingly defiant. But still blushing.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“The X had released its first wave of chemical optimism, I could feel it float up inside me like a big test balloon and splatter on the roof of my mouth, spraying good cheer. I could almost taste it, like a fizzy pink jelly.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“I always feel sad for the girl that I was, because it never occurred to me that my mother might comfort me. She has never told me she loved me, and I never assumed she did. She tended to me. She administrated me. Oh, yes, and one time she bought me lotion with vitamin E.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“A multichild household is a pit of petty jealousies, this I knew, and the Nash children were panicking at the idea of competing not just with one another, but with a dead sister. They had my sympathies.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“Why bother? It’s impossible to compete with the dead.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“I hadn’t necessarily wanted to be cured. But I was out of places to write, slicing myself between my toes—bad, cry—like a junkie looking for one last vein. Vanish did it for me. I’d saved the neck, such a nice prime spot, for one final good cutting. Then I turned myself in.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“Natalie was buried in the family plot, next to a gravestone that already bore her parents’ names. I know the wisdom, that no parents should see their child die, that such an event is like nature spun backward. But it’s the only way to truly keep your child. Kids grow up, they forge more potent allegiances. They find a spouse or a lover. They will not be buried with you. The Keenes, however, will remain the purest form of family. Underground.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects