Confessions on the 7 Quotes

“People didn’t fall in love with other people. They fell in love with how other people made them feel about themselves. And so, it was easy to get someone to love you—if you knew how they wanted to feel.”
― Lisa Unger, Confessions on the 7:45

“When we narrate our experience, we take control of it. And in controlling the story of our past, we can create a better future.”
― Lisa Unger, Confessions on the 7:45

“I mean—are some men just flawed by nature? Or do we enable their bad behavior, make it worse in a way because we hide it, and don’t demand better from them?”
― Lisa Unger, Confessions on the 7:45

“All women are mysteries.” “Only men think that,” said Pearl. “Largely because they’re not paying attention.”
― Lisa Unger, Confessions on the 7:45

“Nobody told you that wen you became a parent, you became a child again; it was early bedtimes and grilled cheese sandwiches for all. Every date night was a negotiation, every invitation that you actually had the desire or energy to accept became a strategic maneuver that may or may not work out after all.”
― Lisa Unger, Confessions on the 7:45

“There was no undoing the bad without losing the good. That was the trick of it all.”
― Lisa Unger, Confessions on the 7:45

“But mainly, people were so wrapped up in their own inner hurricane that they never saw anything outside the storm of themselves.”
― Lisa Unger, Confessions on the 7:45

“And that’s all life was—a series of choices and their consequences.”
― Lisa Unger, Confessions on the 7:45

“He didn’t respect or even understand that other people had boundaries and only bullies pushed through them.”
― Lisa Unger, Confessions on the 7:45

“If she was honest with herself, the challenge of Graham excited her at first. She amped up her fitness routine, wore the sexiest underwear she could find. She made him chase. Blocked his calls sometimes, even stood him up once. Once upon a time, she’d been the woman sending dirty texts. His excitement excited her. That’s why she thought she’d left Will for Graham. Because Graham excited her. Because life with him, what it would be, could be, seemed like a mystery, an adventure.”
― Lisa Unger, Confessions on the 7:45

“This is your home,” her mother said. “Wherever I am, that’s where you belong.”
― Lisa Unger, Confessions on the 7:45

“Didn’t he know that she was playing him? The funny thing was that they almost never, ever did. And even after they figured it out, they doubted themselves. Wanted to believe they were wrong. Even when there was no denying that they’d been had, you could almost always go back for a second helping.”
― Lisa Unger, Confessions on the 7:45

“There was stardust in her bones.”
― Lisa Unger, Confessions on the 7:45

“Who you were is gone. Who you will be—she doesn’t exist. The only thing that matters is who are you are right now. Pop. Con artist. Zen master.”
― Lisa Unger, Confessions on the 7:45

“You know what? she said. There is always going to be someone who will try to take the sparkle out of your life. Don’t let him. Okay? Just enjoy the stories”
― Lisa Unger, Confessions on the 7:45

“Will didn’t have children with his ex, so he didn’t know how complicated it could be to regret marrying someone.”
― Lisa Unger, Confessions on the 7:45

“Your mother’s a mystery, isn’t she?” asked Charlie. “Not really,” said Pearl. As far as Pearl was concerned, her mother was an open book. “All women are mysteries.” “Only men think that,” said Pearl. “Largely because they’re not paying attention.”
― Lisa Unger, Confessions on the 7:45

“People who drove themselves that hard were usually afraid of something. What did people like that want? They wanted to be the best, to have the most. Because being the best meant that they were safe from harm. But no one was ever safe from harm. Not really.”
― Lisa Unger, Confessions on the 7:45

“Even in my thirties, I feel like I need an adult—like I’m still a child, navigating a scary world of police and lawyers that I have no business being a part of yet.”
― Seraphina Nova Glass, Someone's Listening

“I do what any woman in my position would do, and surrender to the compulsion to compare myself to her and wonder what she has that I don’t.”
― Seraphina Nova Glass, Someone's Listening

“Think of him as an addict,” said her new therapist in one of Selena’s individual sessions. This doctor had fewer excuses for Graham. “His behavior is something outside of you that you don’t control and can’t fix. Don’t hang your worthiness on his failings. But now you have to decide where your boundaries are, what you will and will not tolerate. Every marriage is a negotiation. Both parties have to obey the terms.”
― Lisa Unger, Confessions on the 7:45

“If you weren’t running a game, someone was running one on you.”
― Lisa Unger, Confessions on the 7:45

“fast as I can.” “I don’t know why your sister called you.” “Maybe because I’ve had so much practice disappointing you.” I hung up and went outside to find Sophie.”
― Emilie Richards, A Family of Strangers: A Novel

“Maybe that primal need for your mother when you’re in pain, because no matter how abandoned she’s left you, no matter how many years have passed, you still carry an illogical hope that maybe...maybe she’ll be there this time.”
― Seraphina Nova Glass, Someone's Listening

“Sonder, I think. It’s a word I never knew existed, and was delighted to learn about. It means: the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.”
― Seraphina Nova Glass, Someone's Listening

“Good, according to Stella, with the books. He was well-read. He hand-sold, getting to know patrons and recommending books they might like. He’s a throwback, said Stella. A real bookseller, in an industry that had stopped caring about story and only cared about numbers.”
― Lisa Unger, Confessions on the 7:45

“Pull yourself together, Selena, she chided. Fix this. End this. Write a better headline.”
― Lisa Unger, Confessions on the 7:45

“But that was the world now, everyone in their little silo, broadcasting versions of their lives from a screen, onto the screens of others.”
― Lisa Unger, Confessions on the 7:45

“Write it, said Beth. When we narrate our experience, we take control of it. And in controlling the story of our past, we can create a better future.”
― Lisa Unger, Confessions on the 7:45

“She watched. That was her gift. To disappear into the black, sink into the shadows behind and between. That's where you really saw things for what they were, when people revealed their true natures, Everyone was on broadcast these days, thrusting out versions of themselves, cropped and filtered for public consumption. Everyone putting on the "show of me". It was when people were alone, unobserved, that the mask came off”
― Lisa Unger, Confessions on the 7:45