There's No Coming Back from This Quotes

“To be nobody-but-yourself—in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody but yourself—means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting. —e. e. cummings”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s wrong. And then, Just because it’s easy doesn’t make it right.”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“Caring seems so simple. Someone needs help and you help them.”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“I did think it was time to identify the people in my life who liked me for me, not for what I did for them.”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“Caring seems so simple. Someone needs help and you help them. It took me so long to understand what was healthy and what wasn’t and why. I didn’t know everything, but I knew this: I was going to choose who to help and how much using my own wants as a barometer for a change.”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“I’d banked on something I’d learned over the years. That arrogance and an inability to assess risk go hand in hand. There was no end to stories of politicians having affairs in plain sight, millionaires drunk on their own control failing to factor in the little guy, the whistleblower.”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“Was I supposed to become someone who would take others down for my own needs? Like Dawna? Or tattle instead of manage my own battles? Or sabotage others to keep this job so I could pay my debts? Hurt people the way they had hurt me? And if I didn’t, then I’d be out, scrounging for a way out of my crushing debt, far away from Three, having done everything wrong again.”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“Most of my recent imbalances have to do with trusting the wrong person to do a job.”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“Admitting that you’ve lost everything might bring empathy, but it also brought difficult questions. If you were sleeping when a tornado hit your house, the people on Twitter would blame you for living in a place where tornados can hit your house. If your accountant stole your money, everyone in your book club would agree that you should have been paying better attention. The blame ball, in the game of life, rolled downhill and, as often as not, hit the victim. It was human nature, and I was sure Muriel or Three would not be immune to questioning my abilities.”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“As I drove, I became ever more aware of the bubble I lived in. I’d never seen a person covered by a huge blue IKEA bag sleeping on a mattress in a median before. I slowed, and angry drivers made it clear that this was not something people slowed for. In Wisconsin, if a person was found lying on the side of the road, 911 was called. People stopped. I watched the traffic barrel past, and that’s when I saw the encampment under the overpass. A jumble of tents, boxes, tarps of all shapes and sizes, and people clustered along the sidewalk. I knew now how this happened to people—you live, take out a second mortgage on your home to get through a pandemic, hire a criminal with too much eyeliner and an old perm. You trust that person, google what a kidney does and how much it’s worth.”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“The trick was to listen, support, and do no problem-solving until a solid problem was defined.”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“Alone Again (Naturally).” A terrible tune about a man who certainly had a depression diagnosis, and someone should have taken away his piano.”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“depression”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“I tried breathing like a yogi, but who was I kidding. I tried to examine my anxiety as if it were an item at the grocery cart. To read its label: a negative feeling that you don’t need. Put that package back on the shelf and breathe.”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“You had to hand it to the Universe. It lies in wait and the second you get a little comfy in life, maybe even a little judgy about another parent feeding their child deep-fried chicken tenders, your kid will refuse to eat anything but McDonald’s chicken nuggets,”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“Whatever I want,” I said. A statement, not a question. And with the perfect timing of a professional comic, his mustache tickled my temple, and I giggled.”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“faulty parenting trap I’d set: Do everything. Ask for nothing. I kissed Kevin, silently apologizing for not introducing her.”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“There was so much to learn, and it occurred to me that the largest life lesson of all had to be answering the question of how much to give, how much to keep. How much do you matter versus how much do others count when trying to be a mother, friend, or good person? My mother knew to take care of herself first, and I’d learned the opposite in reaction. I couldn’t fault her anymore. I didn’t agree with her, but I got it.”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“I gauged her to be somewhere between forty and sixty, that ubiquitous age for a woman that teens considered ancient and homogenous.”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“Whatever all else comes and goes—memories, parents, houses, children—the truth I’m left with is this: I am mine. What if that was enough?”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“it felt like butter smoothing burned toast in the morning—if that was a feeling.”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“In his presence everything shone a little brighter. I was prettier, funnier, brilliant.”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“The person that had been so kind needed kindness himself, and the sadness I felt for him, for all of us who needed to catch a break, it pinched.”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“I tried to examine my anxiety as if it were an item at the grocery cart. To read its label: a negative feeling that you don’t need. Put that package back on the shelf and breathe.”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s wrong.”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“I didn’t add it doesn’t get any easier, but I did say, “I think it takes trial and error and practice. Nothing is a forever decision. Nothing can’t be undone.”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“You know, if you stood up for yourself like you do for everyone else, maybe I could respect you. I did put others first. I’d long known that if you focus on other people, you don’t have to figure out what you want. If you never ask anything for yourself, you’ll never discover who cares or, for that matter, doesn’t care.”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“It was like that old joke about people like me, people who cared knowing they shouldn’t: I’m going to give up people pleasing if that’s okay with everyone.”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“The trick was to listen, support, and do no problem-solving until a solid problem was defined. Emotions were not to be solved.”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This

“You and Netflix need to take a break. Wicked characters do not lie in wait for fifty-year-old women to drive into town in a ten-year-old Toyota Sienna van. What would they do to me? Ask me for my recipe for lasagna and make me set the table? Nobody wants me.”
― Ann Garvin, There's No Coming Back from This