Perfect Tunes Quotes

“But she was too scared, or too busy, or too distracted, or just too tired, to do what was necessary to make her dreams come true.”
― Emily Gould, Perfect Tunes

“Tom turned and looked up just in time to make eye contact with Marie, who was still across the street. She waved and gave him an eyebrow raise to indicate that she understood what had just gone down. He raised a fingertip to his lips. He thought he was so cool, but he also sort of was cool. She crossed the street to meet him, and he greeted her by holding out his hand, which was almost as good as a kiss. Inside his hand was a little plastic bag full of brown twigs. “Want to come over and eat mushrooms?” Obviously, she said yes.”
― Emily Gould, Perfect Tunes

“The feeling that Laura got as she watched Callie play her songs was so strange, a mix of pain and pleasure. Or maybe it was more like the kind of minor pain you can easily stand to inflict on yourself but that’s intolerable when someone else does it.”
― Emily Gould, Perfect Tunes

“But then they hung out with her a little bit and talked about sleep and viruses and the impossibility of getting men to proactively plan to accommodate other people’s needs. Eventually, they always came around to the idea that Laura really was a mom, even though she could, in the right lighting, still pass for a member of the enemy class: unfettered women.”
― Emily Gould, Perfect Tunes

“They were staying in a group house that often hosted touring musicians, which Laura had expected to be gross but turned out to be less gross than her own apartment. It benefited a lot from having high ceilings and the vaguely healthy ambiance created wherever you see a lot of bikes.”
― Emily Gould, Perfect Tunes

“She got faster at making change, and her muscles learned the wrist-flick that eased credit cards through the slot in the machine on the first try, the exact pace to walk at so that the tray of drinks in her hand would sail and not wobble or slosh.”
― Emily Gould, Perfect Tunes

“Her hand brushed his accidentally, and he reached out and grabbed it, which made Laura feel a stunning burst of happiness.”
― Emily Gould, Perfect Tunes

“She both did and didn’t want to tell Amanda about Dylan. It was still thrilling to tell other people about him; talking about him conjured him and made it almost like he was there. In some ways it was better than actually being around him.”
― Emily Gould, Perfect Tunes

“Callie didn’t laugh. Her brow creased, and despite her perfect makeup, she looked older. “There’s no evolution for guys like him. You can be with them, but the version of him you’re seeing right now is who you’re going to be with. If you’re okay with that, by all means.”
― Emily Gould, Perfect Tunes

“To childless people, children were a logistical problem to be solved: find a way to pay for and arrange childcare, and you were free. They didn’t understand that even when you weren’t with your child, the child continued to exist in a part of your brain that you had to consciously work to silence, or as a low hum of anxiety that colored everything. Either way, you were fucked. Either way, pleasure and creativity were sacrificed entirely, or only permitted in small doses.”
― Emily Gould, Perfect Tunes

“There’s no evolution for guys like him. You can be with them, but the version of him you’re seeing right now is who you’re going to be with. If you’re okay with that, by all means.”
― Emily Gould, Perfect Tunes

“In that song, someone suggests to the narrator (ostensibly Joni) that she should settle down and have children or do charity work, and Joni responds that the cure for her melancholy is actually to find herself “another lover.”
― Emily Gould, Perfect Tunes

“Was she supposed to explain how it had felt to sing onstage, that it was like one of her limbs had been severed and then reattached and now blood was flowing through it again?”
― Emily Gould, Perfect Tunes