The Amendment Quotes

“There are just these periods where things feel safe and calm, and then, long before we’re ready, everything’s torn apart and we call it change.”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“Normal doesn’t exist and it never has. There are just these periods where things feel safe and calm, and then, long before we’re ready, everything’s torn apart and we call it change. We look back at our lives and wonder when it all changed, but the truth is…the better question is, when didn’t it? Because we’re always changing. Life is always changing. It’s the rarer moments where things are still.”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“Some things can be changed. Some people can change. But some things, some things are so deep down at the core of who we are, no matter what the people around us do, nothing will change”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“Normal doesn’t exist and it never has. There are just these periods where things feel safe and calm, and then, long before we’re ready, everything’s torn apart and we call it change.”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“I closed my eyes, trying to remain composed. If anyone could cause me to lose control of my rage, it was my mother.”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“For so long, I’d thought I could love him hard enough to fix him. All the while, he was breaking me.”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“I think sometimes people show us who they are, and we have to choose whether or not we’re going to believe them. There’s personality, Annie, and there’s human nature.”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“It’s one tiny change of plan. The first time your child doesn’t want you to hold them. The last time they ask you to play with them. Just baby steps and minuscule differences, and we all just assume it’s a hiccup…that things will go back to the way things have been if we just keep on trying. Keep believing. Keep assuming things are normal. But they aren’t because there is no normal. Normal doesn’t exist and it never has.”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“Not like before. Well, sort of like before. An…amendment to the arrangement.”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“And why couldn’t I introduce myself to him? You practically raised your leg and marked me as your territory. You were uncomfortable with him… Why?”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“There are just these periods where things feel safe and calm, and then, long before we’re ready, everything’s torn apart and we call it change. We look back at our lives and wonder when it all changed, but the truth is…the better question is, when didn’t it? Because we’re always changing. Life is always changing. It’s the rarer moments where things are still.”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“Creating a plan B was your problem, Peter. Somehow, creating a plan B always makes certain that we’ll need to use it.”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“You just need to talk to each other. Maybe the two of you want the same things without realizing it. Maybe you’re so busy protecting each other that you can’t see the truth right in front of you.”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“You…called…me the monster, but…you’re a monster…too.”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“I shook him from my head. Lately, I’d been thinking about him more and more, and I had no idea why.”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“I thought back over the past few months, trying to recall the last time I’d attended a practice with her, but failing. Once, I’d been there every Thursday night without fail, but when her friends started joining her team, there’d been carpools and changes of plans, and eventually, I’d been traded out for the dance moms whose entire lives revolved around their children’s dance careers. Somehow, until that moment, I’d never realized it. That’s how it happens, isn’t it? It’s one tiny change of plan. The first time your child doesn’t want you to hold them. The last time they ask you to play with them.”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“Instead of sleeping with other people, I want to help you kill other people.”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“Because we’re always changing. Life is always changing.”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“We’d been in crisis mode for so long, sometimes I wondered if we even remembered how to be normal.”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“We’re in this together. You and me.”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“By the time I saw you for who you were, it was too late.”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“By the time I saw you for who you were, it was too late. I had three babies with you. We had a life. A home. Friends.”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“I think sometimes people show us who they are, and we have to choose whether or not we’re going to believe them. There’s personality, Annie, and there’s human nature. Some things can be changed. Some people can change. But some things, some things are so deep down at the core of who we are, no matter what the people around us do, nothing will change us. If Pete has shown you who he is, you have to decide if you can live with it. If he’s unwilling to change, you have to decide if you’re going to change. Because if you’re both unhappy, one of you has to.”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“But as long as I had my kids, I could live with whatever came my way. Of that, more than anything else, I was sure.”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“I think sometimes people show us who they are, and we have to choose whether or not we’re going to believe them.”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“Hello,” she said, her tone crisp. “Have you talked to your father?” She drew out the word. Fine, thanks. How are you?”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“It amazed me the secrets you could hide by appearing average.”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“But you’re my monster. And as long as you’re completely honest with me, I’m not going anywhere.”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“Everyone hopes their children will turn into some better version of themselves. It’s why we search for ourselves in their tiny features when they’re newborns.”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment

“She’s like a storm you can see from a distance. I always know something’s brewing with her, but she doesn’t ever get close enough to feel the rain.”
― Kiersten Modglin, The Amendment