The Margot Affair Quotes

“The sky overflowed with light from a large sun”
― Sanaë Lemoine, The Margot Affair

“You can be so cruel to people who remind you of yourself.”
― Sanaë Lemoine, The Margot Affair

“It was like sitting close to a window and being caught unaware by a beam of light, noticing the shift of temperature as it travels over you, heating your skin for an instant.”
― Sanaë Lemoine, The Margot Affair

“We had nothing planned and the day opened up to me, as blank and dull as every other summer day.”
― Sanaë Lemoine, The Margot Affair

“At home, she was a stranger to me. I wanted her to return to where she'd come from, as if she could be reabsorbed into herself. She was turned inside out, her interior laid flat along her skin for everyone to see. I preferred her right side out, a mother in the conventional form.”
― Sanaë Lemoine, The Margot Affair

“We are like snakes, she said. Throughout our lives we shed our previous selves like old skins. We’re always changing, never the same individual. Nothing, not even a terrible thing, can fully consume us.”
― Sanaë Lemoine, The Margot Affair

“Théo and Mathilde had been like second parents to me, and it was both thrilling and strange to hear such an intimate account of their first meeting. They had taken care of me when I was younger, running baths and preparing dinner when Anouk worked late. After I turned twelve and Anouk decided I was old enough to be on my own, I saw them less, but they still dropped by from time to time to keep me company. They were among the few to”
― Sanaë Lemoine, The Margot Affair

“You haven’t been in love yet, have you? Your world is still contained, small and intense, and every change to the status quo feels like a rug is being pulled from under your feet. It knocks the air from you. I can see it on your face. When you’re older, you’ll experience these things with more distance and forgiveness. They won’t be earth-shattering in the same way. They won’t be a matter of life or death. Right now you want it all to go away. I’ve been there, shutting my eyes and blocking my ears. This feeling will lessen over time, as will the immediacy of your emotions.”
― Sanaë Lemoine, The Margot Affair

“arrived late one night in April. The furniture”
― Sanaë Lemoine, The Margot Affair

“The memories grew sharper over time because I took such good care of them. How to fill a hole when he was barely there to begin with? How to miss someone who has more absence than presence?”
― Sanaë Lemoine, The Margot Affair

“I waited for our worlds to collide once more”
― Sanaë Lemoine, The Margot Affair

“Is this what I'd been doing with Brigitte, searching for markers of his devotion as a father, or did I want to justify the peaceful coexistence of his two lives?”
― Sanaë Lemoine, The Margot Affair

“It requires empathy to tell another person how to be. You have to put yourself in their position and imagine what you'd do if you were the same human being, with the same motivations and history. It's almost impossible for a man to do this, especially with a woman who is trying to get pregnant.”
― Sanaë Lemoine, The Margot Affair

“We are like snakes, she said. Throughout our lives we shed our previous selves like old skins. We're always changing, never the same individual. Nothing, not even a terrible thing, can fully consume us.”
― Sanaë Lemoine, The Margot Affair

“We always imagine a talented person should only pursue their one talent, as if they can't have others.”
― Sanaë Lemoine, The Margot Affair

“A marriage is a closed world. Anyone who thinks they can explain it to an outsider is a fool.”
― Sanaë Lemoine, The Margot Affair

“Les papas, I said, sighing, as if we knew all of their shortcomings, and as if we didn't love them with every fiber of our being.”
― Sanaë Lemoine, The Margot Affair

“It must be difficult for you, he said, being your parents' secret.”
― Sanaë Lemoine, The Margot Affair

“There were so many of us, children of these double families who dreamed of the other side.”
― Sanaë Lemoine, The Margot Affair

“And then there was the banality of waiting. Weeks going by, waiting for him, hating him for being gone, wondering if he loved us, missing him, believing he was better than everyone else because time with him was precious. That is how we lived, in a constant state of anticipation.”
― Sanaë Lemoine, The Margot Affair

“I had checked my phone every hour, waiting for his call, worried he had forgotten because I knew how upset he would be, but also hoping he wouldn't call so I could indulge in my sadness, give shape to my anger, feel that dark twinge of satisfaction.”
― Sanaë Lemoine, The Margot Affair

“I knew motherhood clashed with her self-realization.”
― Sanaë Lemoine, The Margot Affair