The Switch Quotes

“You were healing. You’re still healing. You’ll maybe always be healing. And that’s OK. It’ll just be part of what makes you you.”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“That’s the way with old friends. You understand each other, even when there’s not enough words out there for everything that should be said.”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“When people talk about loss, they always say you'll never be the same, that it will change you, leave a hole in your life. ( . . . ) But when you lose somebody you love, you don't lose everything they gave you. They leave something with you.”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“If you're holding someone close enough, you can be the shoulder and the crier.”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“We don’t have any good words for talking about death – they’re all too small.”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“Is it really an adventure if you don't make at least one ill-advised decision?”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“Family can be so complicated, but if you just pick your own way of doing it you can end up with something pretty perfect all the same.”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“I'm a teacher... no millions at stake, just futures.”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“I think you should know,' he says. 'I like you. Like I shouldn't. That sort of like.”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“and remind myself for the hundredth time how important it is to support other women in business. I really, fully believe that. It’s a code I live by, and it’s how I plan to make it to the top.”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“I'm rather worn out, and it's an awful lot easier to be independent when there's somebody else there with you”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“That’s the messy thing about family tragedy, I guess. Your best support network goes under in an instant.”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“Never been one for worst-case scenarios,” Jackson says. He crouches to dip his roller in the tray; his wrists are flecked with paint now, new, brighter freckles. “When they happen, you cope. And it’s usually one you’ve not thought of that gets you, so why worry?”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“It’s easy to forget, when you’re missing someone, that they’re more than just the person you remember: they have sides to themselves they only show when other people are around.”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“I think part of what had made me so angry with my mum was the fact that I felt she should have been looking after me, not the other way around. But Mum couldn’t be my shoulder to cry on, not when she was bent double with grief herself. That’s the messy thing about family tragedy, I guess. Your best support network goes under in an instant.”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“Perhaps the lady is losing her marbles a little. It’s started happening to Penelope – terribly sad, though on the plus side she seems to have forgotten that she can’t stand Roland. It’s been something of a second honeymoon for the two of them.”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“I'm not sure how you can ever be grateful enough for someone leading you through the darkest time in your life.”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“Rule number one of dating . . . You cannot change a man. Even if he does have his own teeth.”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“Once we were going, I spent most of the meeting wondering what the meeting is, which is not uncommon feeling- I'd say eighty percent of the client meeting i attend are spent this way-but does make it hard to engage with the discussion. The main thing that's confusing me is the total lack of any metion of crime. So far we've talked about: bacon sandwiches (Roland has discovered that Mabel at No 5 Peewit Street makes excellent ones, so he's back to boycotting Julie's, which I gather is a cafe in Knargill), squirrels (Basil is very anti), and whether potatoes are fattening (I think it's the bacon sandwiches they ought to be worrying about, really). Then everyone spends twenty minutes complaining about Firs Blandon, a local village that has apparently caused havoc by moving a farmers fence two feet to the left to reflect what they believe to be boundary between parishes.”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“The person on the other side is the sort of elderly lady who turns out to be an alien in a Doctor Who episode. Just way too perfectly old-lady-ish.”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“The pain of missing her is scorching, but I’ll live through it.”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“If you want something done well, do it yourself,”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“«Non sono mai stato tipo da scenari catastrofici» dice Jackson. Si accovaccia per immergere il rullo nel secchio; adesso ha i polsi chiazzati di vernice, nuove lentiggini, più accese. «Quando succedono, li affronti in qualche modo. E di solito è quello a cui non avevi pensato che ti capita, quindi perché preoccuparsi?»

Dio, cosa darei per essere come lui. La meravigliosa semplicità di questo modo di pensare.

-- Otto settimane per cambiare vita -- (it)
(The Switch)”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“I’m rather worn out, and it’s an awful lot easier to be independent when there’s somebody else there with you.”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“Excuse me,’ I say rather frostily. ‘I had better go and sort this out.’ Men. They always bloody let you down, don’t they?”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“I'm his donkey. He's my Shrek.”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“My brain doesn't know when to shut up. I bet you I can think up twenty worst-case scenarios before you could even think of one.”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“That's the trouble with dating on the Internet, I suppose. There's no way for anybody to hear your laugh or see the way your eyes go dreamy when you talk about something you love.”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“When people talk about loss, they always say that you’ll never be the same, that it will change you, leave a hole in your life.”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch

“last time we spoke about B&L plans she said her confidence had taken such a knock after Carla died, she couldn’t really countenance”
― Beth O'Leary, The Switch