Mothered Quotes

“Her lunacy dripped off the ceiling, staining her hair.”
― Zoje Stage, Mothered

“But in truth, his path to working with the criminally insane began with a teenage passion for serial-killer movies”
― Zoje Stage, Mothered

“one claw short of feral.”
― Zoje Stage, Mothered

“I won’t let her bring out anything but the best in me.”
― Zoje Stage, Mothered

“In spite of her preference for living alone, she required people the way a drug addict needed a fix—but she liked her socializing to happen within controllable situations, with easy exit strategies.”
― Zoje Stage, Mothered

“What made a human being turn monstrous? An error in prenatal development, a misalignment of chemicals, an insufficient ability to adapt to misfortune, too much of one thing and too little of something else?”
― Zoje Stage, Mothered

“It’s hard to know what to do when the thing you’re afraid of is invisible. And you never saw it arrive, so how do you know when it’s gone?”
― Zoje Stage, Mothered

“You know what we all know? It’s hardest to be a parent in the moment, when things are happening. But when you look back . . . We all know what we would’ve done differently.”
― Zoje Stage, Mothered

“planned”
― Zoje Stage, Mothered

“Another bit she’d nearly forgotten: how her mother could leave her questioning the value of her deeds or even aspects of her personality.”
― Zoje Stage, Mothered

“That’s what the Jewish people do. I like it—stones last longer than flowers.”
― Zoje Stage, Mothered

“nurses? And delivery drivers! What if the hospitals filled up or there weren’t enough supplies? What about the people all over the world, cogs in the supply chain? How many holes—absent workers—could the system take before it stopped running?”
― Zoje Stage, Mothered

“The smile on Hope’s face was an unavoidable contortion, not constant happiness. And when her glee was intentional, it had usually meant trouble.”
― Zoje Stage, Mothered

“It’s good to get out of your comfort zone—that’s how you find out who you really are.”
― Zoje Stage, Mothered

“There were advantages to not catching—or spreading—every bug and cold that wafted through the air. If only everyone had done it sooner.”
― Zoje Stage, Mothered

“It all felt so decadent and luxurious, lolling around in her perfumed room, accompanied by the sad, dulcet tones of Billie Eilish, girl genius, as she tried to pick open her mother’s treasure box.”
― Zoje Stage, Mothered

“I think my mom’s a vegetarian.” “Is that why you’re so mad at her?”
― Zoje Stage, Mothered

“As Grace sat in the front-row pew, she felt very small, apprehensive of what it would be like to go home to an empty house, truly alone. Time would tick more slowly without Hope there, hours and hours of solitary uncertainty.”
― Zoje Stage, Mothered

“Hope were in heaven, Grace considered it very unlikely that her sister was an angel; Hope just didn’t have the temperament for that, though she would probably enjoy having wings and flying around.”
― Zoje Stage, Mothered

“She’d learned about sonar in school—SOund NAvigation and Ranging”
― Zoje Stage, Mothered

“Grace knew she was in this predicament because she’d been too eager, too desperate to have some kind of normal fucking social life. As if reading her thoughts, Miguel said, “I’ll be more diligent this time, about wearing a mask.” “Me too. It’s hard to know what to do when the thing you’re afraid of is invisible. And you never saw it arrive, so how do you know when it’s gone?”
― Zoje Stage, Mothered

“If the pandemic had taught her nothing else, she knew that life—a life, or even normal existence—could disappear with little warning.”
― Zoje Stage, Mothered