The Half Moon Quotes

“He remembered being a kid, all the things he felt capable of, all the streets and avenues that branched away from his body, all the possibilities. But in the end you can only have one life. One at a time, at least. You could turn, you could pause for awhile, but you couldn't go down two streets at once. The things they didn't end up doing, the places and people they decided against, all defined them as much as anything else, in the way negative space defines a photo or a song. The lives they didn't lead were there, too, always with them. Only recently did he begin to see the shape those choices had made.”
― Mary Beth Keane, The Half Moon

“She wanted a cure for grief and she wanted someone to tell her where to find it.”
― Mary Beth Keane, The Half Moon

“and everyone acts as if everyone else’s favorite vodka is garbage even though no human can actually tell one vodka from another.”
― Mary Beth Keane, The Half Moon

“Whether we stay together or stay apart, it means something. I'm just trying to figure out what. We're messing up. We're wasting time. We have one life, and it's a miracle when you think about it. I want to stop messing it up.”
― Mary Beth Keane, The Half Moon

“But in the end you can only have one life. One at a time, at least. You could turn, you could pause for a while, but you couldn’t go down two streets at once. The things they didn’t end up doing, the places and people they decided against, all defined them as much as anything else, in the way negative space defines a photo or a song. The lives they didn’t lead were there, too, always with them. Only recently did he begin to see the shape those choices had made.”
― Mary Beth Keane, The Half Moon

“When people were raised without that worry, you could feel it just by standing near them; something about the way they spoke and moved. It couldn’t be learned.”
― Mary Beth Keane, The Half Moon

“They’d been moving around each other without seeing one another lately, but that week she’d touched his arm as she passed behind him at the sink. She’d reached for him in her sleep and fitted her body around his. He thought things were getting better, but actually, all that time, she was saying goodbye.”
― Mary Beth Keane, The Half Moon

“I’m never more myself than I am when I’m with you.”
― Mary Beth Keane, The Half Moon

“Right and wrong were shades of meaning, not sides of a coin. Louise Erdrich, Love Medicine”
― Mary Beth Keane, The Half Moon

“He learned how to talk to anyone, how to find common ground. He learned how to be a vessel for people’s worries, their complaints, and he learned that he’d better not have any worries or complaints of his own. He learned how to be friendly to women without crossing a line, he knew how to make them feel beautiful without being a sleaze, and he learned how to walk those same women back when they crossed the line, without insulting them, without embarrassing them. He learned to hide his shock at some of the things they said to him, these perfectly normal-seeming women, these women in their nearly identical faux leather jackets and their wedges, their hair in banana curls like they were all heading to some pageant for middle-aged women, the things that came out of their mouths when they had too much to drink or if they’d been wronged by their boyfriends or husbands.”
― Mary Beth Keane, The Half Moon

“But it turned out people didn’t want things to be nice, they wanted them to be familiar.”
― Mary Beth Keane, The Half Moon

“end up doing, the places and people they decided against, all defined them as much as anything else, in the way negative space defines a photo or a song. The lives they didn’t lead were there, too, always with them. Only recently did he begin to see the shape those choices had made.”
― Mary Beth Keane, The Half Moon

“Because it was him I met, she remembered. Him I liked. She recalled the strange feeling she got, locking eyes with him across a room when they barely knew each other's names, recognizing him, feeling recognized, long before anything happened. A line pulled taut. A tug. A whole life that was hers to step into, if she wanted to.”
― Mary Beth Keane, The Half Moon

“The growing sense that life was passing her by and if she didn't do something she'd leave nothing behind to prove she was even there.”
― Mary Beth Keane, The Half Moon

“She knew she sounded like the exact kind of wife she swore she’d never be, speaking to him like she was his boss, or his mother. Did she want to speak to her husband like he was a child? Of course not. But when a person dreams of partnering with someone for life, no one ever considers the fact that there’s no dependable way to communicate a thought except to say it.”
― Mary Beth Keane, The Half Moon

“Anyone in their crew could make a billion, but they'd still understand what it meant to worry. It was present in them no matter where they ended up, just the same as their eye color, their height; the patina of a childhood made up of hand-me-down sneakers and overhearing their parents discuss layoffs, strikes; buying the expiration day meat and their mothers saying it was fine as long as it was cooked to well-done. When people were raised without that worry, you could feel it just by standing near them; something about the way they spoke and moved. It couldn't be learned.”
― Mary Beth Keane, The Half Moon