The Younger Wife Quotes

“Perhaps the very worst people still had some good in them. And perhaps the very best had some bad.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“It was amazing,
the effect a father had on a person. A father was the benchmark that told
you what to expect. What to accept. And, perhaps most importantly, what to
believe about yourself. Her father had taught her to expect nothing and to
accept less. And he’d taught her to believe that she was nothing.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“What happens in our childhood shapes us – our ability to
relate to people, to manage our emotions, to control our impulses.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“It’s funny how desperately the brain will seek an answer if it doesn’t have one. Not knowing is not a restful state.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“She just needed to reframe, that was all. People reframed all the time. People who realized they weren't going to live a long life. People who lost a loved one, suffered an accident, lost use of a limb. They reframed. And [she] would too.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“father was the benchmark that told you what to expect. What to accept. And, perhaps most importantly, what to believe about yourself.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“Being Tully’s sister required a very specific skill set. You had to be an animated conversationalist (Tully was easily bored) but also a calming influence. You had to be fully invested in whatever she was talking about but be prepared for the fact that Tully would lose interest five minutes later. You had to love her with your whole heart but do so from arm’s length. Getting close to her was like trying to get close to a helicopter—you always ended up windswept and breathless…and occasionally you lost your head.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“What happens in our childhood shapes us—our ability to relate to people, to manage our emotions, to control our impulses.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“Healthy food, she realized, really was a privilege of the wealthy. When you had less help, more to do, and less money to spend, junk food was really all you had to appease tired, angry children.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“Pam got out a notepad and a pen. These days, with her memory issues, if she didn’t write things down, they didn’t happen. She wrote down Fiona Arthur’s name. Then she wrote down Tully’s name. If she got the news she feared, she’d need to pack, find a new place to live. There’d be a lot of paperwork. Her daughter may have had her troubles but if there was one role Tully was born for, it was this.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“but he always seemed so happy when she handed over the tea that it was almost a delight to make it for him. This was why men ruled the world.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“Yet another person says a fight broke out between the daughters. It’s funny how desperately the brain will seek an answer if it doesn’t have one. Not knowing is not a restful state.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“just mean, don’t beat yourself up for single-handedly saving yourself with the tools you had available to you. Where I come from, that’s called survival.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“I mean … why not bake and eat your feelings? It’s not the worst thing to do with your feelings, is it?”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“This wasn’t just going to be fine; it was going to be better than fine.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“She also had a gift for entertaining—being able to produce a good bottle of wine, spectacular lasagna, and a salad with absolutely no notice, and without any apparent effort. Any time you went to Rachel’s, your glass was full, your plate was warm, and conversation flowed all night. It was a vibe Tully had been unable to re-create, even when paying caterers.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“funny how desperately the brain will seek an answer if it doesn’t have one. Not knowing is not a restful state. I know this. I have never felt less rested, more agitated, than I do right now.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“don’t beat yourself up for single-handedly saving yourself with the tools you had available to you. Where I come from, that’s called survival.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“When you have your period you can’t be held responsible for what you do.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“There can be pride in dysfunction,”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“What if Fiona also had unexplained falls? What if she’d also spent her marriage wondering if she was going crazy when something more sinister was at play?”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“Perhaps she did have father issues after all?”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“You are the reason we are like this. Tully with her neuroses. Rachel’s self-destructiveness. Heather’s shaking hands. Mum’s dementia. Dad had made them believe that they were crazy to question him, but he had finally revealed his true colors.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“With Darcy, she felt like she’d taken back her sexuality from that man on the beach and reclaimed it as her own. She accepted the bad things that had happened to her, as well as the good that had come from it.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“Her father was a bad man. Stephen was good. The falls, the trips, the miscarriage—they were accidents. Stephen would never hurt her. He would never hurt anyone.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“One day, with enough talking she might even be able to manage her feelings without food.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“Dad was in his element here, surrounded by his family. Tully wondered now how she could ever have thought him capable of hurting anyone. She chalked it up to grief. It was amazing the things grief could do.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“It’s funny how desperately the brain will seek an answer if it doesn’t have one. Not knowing is not a restful state. I know this. I have never felt less rested, more agitated, than I do right now.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“At the beginning of our marriage, I loved how vulnerable you were with me. Remember that time you split your pants at the theater but you still wanted to go to drinks afterward so I spent the whole night standing right behind you so no one would see your bottom?”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“I’m trying to piece things together, Dad!” Rachel burst out. “You lied about an ex-wife who tells me you hurt her terribly. Mum left a hundred grand hidden away with a note with your ex-wife’s name on it. Now, whenever I visit Mum, she says something awful about you.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife