Sharp Objects Quotes

“Angie’s house looked like a child’s drawing of a mansion: It was so generic it was barely three-dimensional.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“What are you doing here?” asked the prettiest. Her flushed face had the roundness of a girl barely in her teens and her hair was parted in ribbons, but her breasts, which she aimed proudly outward, were those of a grown woman. A lucky grown woman.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“I’ve always been partial to the image of liquor as lubrication - a layer of protection from all the sharp thoughts in your head.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“We have some great museums. You'd love the lake."
"I don't know that I can enjoy any kind of water anymore."
"Why not?" I already knew.
"After that little girl, little Ann Nash, was left in the creek to drown." She paused to take a sip of her iced tea. "I knew her, you know."
Amma whined and began fidgeting in her seat.
"She wasn't drowned though," I said, knowing my correction would annoy her. "She was strangled. She just ended up in the creek."
"And then the Keene girl. I was fond of both of them. Very fond." She stared away wistfully, and Alan put his hand over hers. Amma stood up, released a little scream the way an excited puppy might suddenly bark, and ran upstairs.
"Poor thing," my mother said. "She's having nearly as hard a time as I am."
"She actually saw the girls every day, so I'm sure she is," I said peevishly in spite of myself. "How did you know them?"
"Wind Gap, I need not remind you, is a small town. They were sweet, beautiful little girls. Just beautiful."
"But you didn't really know them."
"I did know them. I knew them well."
"How?"
"Camille, please try not to do this. I've just told you that I am upset and unnerved, and instead of being comforting, you attack me."
"So. You've sworn off all bodies of water in the future, then?"
My mother emitted a quick, creaky sound. "You need to shut up now, Camille." She folded the napkin around the remains of her pear like a swaddling and left the room. Alan followed her with his manic whistling, like an old-time piano player lending drama to a silent movie.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“stared at me a few beats with his watery”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“Lately, I’ve been leaning toward kindness.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“Lately, I’ve been leaning toward kindness”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“I believe it. Could I trouble you for a glass of water?” Another time-honored ploy: A woman is less likely to throw you out if she’s offered her hospitality. If you have allergies or a cold, asking for a tissue is even better. Women love vulnerability. Most women.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“I remember the shock of hearing my college roommate talk to her mother on the phone: The detailed minutia, her lack of censorship seemed decadent.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“Questions are discouraged, considered prying.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“I’m here, I said, and it felt shockingly comforting, those words. When I’m panicked, I say them aloud to myself. I’m here. I don’t usually feel that I am. I feel like a warm gust of wind could exhale my way and I’d be disappeared forever, not even a sliver of fingernail left behind.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“Poor thing,” my mother said. “She’s having nearly as hard a time as I am.” “She actually saw the girls every day, so I’m sure she is,” I said peevishly in spite of myself. “How did you know them?” “Wind Gap, I need not remind you, is a small town. They were sweet, beautiful little girls. Just beautiful.” “But you didn’t really know them.” “I did know them. I knew them well.” “How?” “Camille, please try not to do this. I’ve just told you that I am upset and unnerved, and instead of being comforting, you attack me.”
― 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

“Alan was sitting on the front porch reading a large, leather-bound book entitled only Horses.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“The kid looked me up and down, then suddenly threw the ball at me, hard. It hit my hip and bounced off. He blurted out a little laugh. “Sorry.” He scrambled after the ball, dove on top of it dramatically, then leapt up and hurled it against the ground. It bounced”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“For the sake of full disclosure, I should add that my mother owns the whole operation and receives approximately $1.2 million in profits from it annually. She lets other people run it.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“A few quick cuts and cunt becomes can’t, cock turns into back, clit transforms to a very unlikely cat, the l and i turned into a teetering capital A.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“Women get consumed. Not surprising, considering the sheer amount of traffic a woman’s body experiences.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“We were near my mother’s house now, and my high was in full bloom. My hair swished on my shoulders like warm water and I swayed side to side to no particular music. A snail shell lay on the edge of the sidewalk and my eyes looped into its curlicue.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“The waiting room had the false homey feel of a dentist’s office;”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“I’m not sure I understood what you said. Who was wearing a nightgown?” I kept my eye on the bouncing ball. “The woman who took Natalie.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“No, no. I could barely stand, much less give speeches. I can’t believe you can’t remember these things, Camille. I’d think you’d be embarrassed to have forgotten so much.” “I was only thirteen when she died, Momma. Remember, I was young.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“The same girls I’d run into at the edge of the forest. They were huddled together laughing until one of them, again the prettiest, motioned over at me, and they all pretended to hang their heads. Their stomachs were still jiggling, though.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“Only two men were needed to carry the shiny white coffin. Any more and they would have been bumping into each other.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“Wedged in the foot-wide space between the hardware store and the beauty parlor was a tiny body, aimed out at the sidewalk. As if she were just sitting and waiting for us, brown eyes wide open. I recognized the wild curls. But the grin was gone. Natalie Keene’s lips caved in around her gums in a small circle. She looked like a plastic baby doll, the kind with a built-in hole for bottle feedings. Natalie had no teeth now.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“wanted to administer an IV when I saw him.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“Head down that road, and I’d find the home of my grade-school piano teacher, a former nun whose breath smelled of eggs.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“I take baths. Not showers. I can’t handle the spray, it gets my skin buzzing, like someone’s turned on a switch. So I wadded a flimsy motel towel over the grate in the shower floor, aimed the nozzle at the wall, and sat in the three inches of water that pooled in the stall.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“Yes, I was first interested in you because I was interested in your mother. But I genuinely fell for you.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

“Four hours later, after two screaming matches with disinterested nurses, a desperate flirtation with a pale, fuzzy-faced administrator, and three trips to the bathroom to vomit, Marian’s files were flopped on my lap.”
― Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects