The Worst Guy Quotes

“Good little girls who grew up into people-pleasing women didn't get that way through any innate altruism or feminine urge to keep the peace. We got there because we learned, at some point, that our needs were a problem best kept to ourselves. We were most worthy when our existence didn't bother anyone.”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“Being obsessively obedient and helpful was another. Everyone loved the kid who was so damn mature for her age. They never saw it as the outward manifestation of inner stress. They never stopped to ask how that kid got to be so mature. They never asked why she couldn't just be a kid. They only reaped the benefits.”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“In truth, I needed to go to a pink glass and teal velvet apartment and wrap myself around a heartbeat that I wanted more than my own.”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“No! I'm a friend of the family," I replied. "That's such a funny way of saying you've hit on half of my sisters-in-law and selected my wife as your emotional support geologist." I was an asshole. We knew this.”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“One of the things I'd learned in the past few years of getting my shit on track and not allowing myself to self-destruct was that kids who grew up in chaotic homes were often highly sensitive to the smallest shifts in tone, behavior, energy. They learned how to protect themselves by picking up on subtle changes that often led to bad situations. They knew the pattern.”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“wanted to show her off tonight. Stand in front of all of our friends, loop my arm around her waist, say, "Do you see? This one's mine." At the same time, I wanted to barricade us behind locked doors and under cozy blankets, press her hand to my chest, and say, "Do you see? This one's yours.”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“I really don’t want to like your pussy as much as I do but it’s made out of demonic magic so I’m helpless here.”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“I want you to trust me enough to let me hold these pieces of you. I like looking after you."
Reflexively, I said, "I don't need looking after."
He rolled his head against the back of his chair to stare at me, his eyes as dark as night and his pout infinitely kissable. "Yes, you do.”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“People look at life like it's a series of checkboxes. Graduate, go to work, get married, get a house, have a kid, get a dog, have another kid, go to Disney World, send the kids off to school, retire, spoil the grandkids. There's always something to do next. Always another checkbox. It keeps you busy, keeps you from looking around and wondering 'What's the point of all this?”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“When reading didn't distract me anymore, I went for a walk. I called it a walk. In my head, it was a walk. Some might say I paced in front of the resort entrance for two hours because I wanted to see Sara the minute she arrived and confirm for myself that she was all right, but it was a walk.”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“[Sebastian explains why he won't leave Boston]

"Because I hate the cold and the forty-two different seasons this city experiences and the leaves"—it had to be noted that he said leaves with jazz hands, and I couldn't tell if those were ironic jazz hands or not—"and then cobblestones, which must've been invented by an orthopedic surgeon, and everything is old as fuck and that's supposed to be special, and the roads"—he cringed with his entire body—"the fucking roads look like a child with no object permanence drew them. They make no sense, none at all, and don't get me started on the sports. These people and their sports. My god. Do you know about the turkeys? There are turkeys here, Shap, they're all over the place, they don't appreciate that we're sharing their habitat, and they'll chase the fuck out of you if you're not careful. And then there's the coffee, which used to be the only part of my day that didn't piss me off but now I can't just order coffee, I have to also join a cult. And you can't park. You just can't park in this town. Don't try. Not worth it, but it means you have to walk on the danger rocks and you better believe they'll be slippery as hell because all the leaves came down between hot wind season and cold hurricane season so you'll roll an ankle just to dodge the turkeys and order a regular coffee which you must drink with cream and sugar by order of the cult but it's going to be free because one of the sports teams finally won a game—and thank fuck for that because they're not out driving drunk or beating on each other for one blessed night." He gave a brisk shake of his head. "That's why I can't leave."

I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. "Because you hate everything?"

"Yeah. I hate it all so thoroughly that I'm sure I'd never find anywhere else to hate with such completeness. Without all of this resentment, I'd be empty inside.”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“I don't need the words. I already know what I need to know. I just need you to choose me.”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“No one will ever love you the way I do," he said.”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“I didn't get you into that fellowship to sit on your hands all day.”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“I didn't even enjoy breakfast without her running commentary on the offenses of blueberries.”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“Emergency surgery didn't care whether my dick was in high spirits or not—and that was why this was the gig for me. I didn't have to think about myself at all.”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“All I knew was that I loved her and I loved who I was when I was with her.”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“You are made of stars. They're inside you, and even on your worst day, they don't stop shining for you. Don't ever forget that.”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“When I pull all the way back and I gather up the contents of this universe as we comprehend it, I see the existence of us—and our great struggles in that existence—as wild accidents. There are entire galaxies forming and dying beyond us, all while we are here in this moment, stumbling around in these fleshy, emotion-filled bodies. We are grains of sand, we are accidents, we are ridiculous miracles—and this is the one, outrageously impossible existence we get." She twisted the bottle of water open. "So, we're not going to let one hiccup get in our way. We're not going to let it end us.”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“Make choices that scare you. They're the best ones.”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“That perfect little tyrant knew exactly what she wanted. She just had to climb out of her head long enough to let herself want it.”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“A family is a bunch of people who love and care for each other unconditionally, people who show up for each other unconditionally. It doesn't have to be legal. Doesn't have to be blood. But it does have to be unconditional. Family can't blow each other off.”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“A family is a bunch of people who love and care for each other unconditionally, people who show up for each other unconditionally. It doesn't have to be legal. Doesn't have to be blood. But”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“The subtle part about living through a war and coming out of it changed, yet not having anywhere to put all of that change, hooked me hard.”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“There were days when I left the hospital and I didn't have any words left in me. It was like I had a specific allotment, a number that varied daily and was never shared with me until I'd surpassed it. When I was out, I was out.”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“I wasn't depressed. Not anxious. I just lived with a simmering cauldron of rage and contempt for the assholes and idiots of the world, and that took up a lot of my time.”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“No," he admitted. "But things don't usually get worse.”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“All right," Nick interrupted, dropping a hand to his wife's shoulder and pulling her to his side. "I'm calling this meeting of the sad and broody kids club to an end for the night. Y'all can wait until next week to dip into the existentialism and the nihilism, okay? Thank you." He shook his head at me. "I don't know why I bring you home with me sometimes, Stremmel, but you have the dying star story now. Everything's going to work out." "Is that what happens after she tells the star story?" I asked.”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“which we can't even imagine because the power and brightness exceeds anything we know in this world. But that explosion—the star's death—sent iron atoms flying through space along with oxygen and carbon. Gravity got in on the game and rounded them up into the planets we know today. The core of this planet is believed to be mostly molten iron. It's inside us and all around us and life wouldn't continue without it.”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy

“She tapped the blue lines running up her arm. "Once upon a very long time ago, a red giant star digested all its helium and turned it into oxygen and carbon, which eventually morphed into iron. All that iron turned the star into a supernova and then its heart burned out the last of its fuel. There was a massive explosion, the likes of”
― Kate Canterbary, The Worst Guy