The Lonely Hearts Book Club Quotes

“This world was a terrible place. It gave you people to love and then took them away before you stopped loving them. It made you mean and angry and cruel to those who needed you most. It ground you down until it was all you could do to get through the day. But most of all, it tried to convince you that you were alone in your suffering.”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“Hearing Sloane and Arthur talk about books was like listening to a song in another language. The message didn’t always make it through, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t appreciate the melody.”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“One should never underestimate the staying power of a woman who had literally nowhere else to be.”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“When was the last time you cared about something so much you couldn’t eat?” he demanded. “Or sleep? When have you ever felt the fire of life burn so bright that it hurts? When did you ever bother to fight for something you loved?”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“If you think great passion means refusing to see someone’s flaws, then you have no idea what real love looks like.”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“I didn't shake her off as instinct warned me to. It was too nice to feel that press of her hand, to know the comfort of a sympathetic touch. One of the things they never told you about growing old alone was how desperate you'd get for that simple human right - or how hard you'd cling to it once you found it again.”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“In many ways, every death was separated by a lifetime. There was before and there was after, and the only thing that linked them was a wisp of memory that seemed to be fading with every passing day.”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“I could always find myself in a book.”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“It was the same thing I loved about working in the library. On the outside, it was a place of whispers and stillness. But inside -- Oh, what marvelous depths there were to explore.”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“See, that was the thing they never told you about happily ever after. Sometimes, there was no happy. Other times, there was no forever. Only the after remained. I knew that better than anyone. The after was what I'd been living for the majority of my life, and it wasn't even close to the fairy-tale promise I was fed as a kid.”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“She was in every book I’d ever read, every tale that had ever touched my heart.”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“I clutched the book to my chest in sudden, heart-wrenching sadness. Not because of the people we'd lost and would continue to lose, but because even with that loss on every horizon, life still called to me.”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“Life was calling to me--it had been calling to me for years--but it had taken this random, beautiful collected of people for me to realize what I had to do.
It was time for me to answer.”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“We could only choose which path to take to our destination. What happened along the way was entirely up to chance.” - Maisey Williams”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“Any idiot could see that what that child needed was space, not some overbearing helicopter mom without a life to call her own. It’s no wonder she went to another state to get away from you. How else was she supposed to escape your endless prattle?”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“No amount of faith can replace human warmth”
― Lucy gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“People can’t learn from their mistakes if they don’t know what their mistakes are.”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“There, in bright orange, stood the words I’d never before taken the time to appreciate—the ones promising that life would go on, that joy was still to be had in the world. They were the words my sister had tried so hard to instill in me all those years ago, the words I’d been too young and too heartbroken to understand. It had taken twenty years and a stranger with an orange highlighter to finally break through.”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“An echo with nothing and no one to call her own,” Arthur announced without preamble. Clearly, this was a subject he’d given some thought to. “A friendly facade. An empty smile. A scared little girl without an opinion of your own, latching on to other people’s bigger and brighter lives because you’re not willing to fully live your own.”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“Life stories were written in ink, not pencil. Once they were down, the only thing you could do was turn the page.”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“Everywhere I looked was honesty and love. Love most of all.”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“More than anything, kids need to know they have a soft spot to land. Your Bella? She knows. She'll know it until the day she dies.”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“More than anything, kuds need to know they have a soft spot to land. Your Bella? She knows. She'll know it until the day she dies.”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“We could only choose which path to take to our destination. What happened along the way was entirely up to chance.”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“I’d never realized before how much effort it took to keep up all that bluster—to fight everything and everyone, to treat every square on the pavement like a battleground.”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“was the sort who slid in like a lizard darting into the water, determined not to make a ripple.”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“If either of you find yourself facing a man like Arthur McLachlan in a full-body rage, my advice is to run,” Mateo said. Maisey considered this for a moment. “And what’s your advice if we’re facing a man like Greg?” “That’s easy.” Mateo winked. “Run faster.”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“I flung up my hand. “Say no more. I’m in.” Both of them stared at me, understandably surprised at my sudden about-face. “Wait,” Greg said. “Really? Just like that?” “Brett Marcowitz is a lump of wet beige clay,” I said by way of explanation. “If this plan is something he wouldn’t approve of, then it has my full support.” Instead of finding anything strange about this, Maisey giggled. “You don’t like him, either?” I really didn’t. I’d only met Sloane’s fiancé a handful of times, but every encounter left me with a stronger feeling of distaste in my mouth. I was no authority on happy, thriving relationships, obviously, but even I knew better than to affix myself to a guy like that. He was bland and condescending, the sort of man who’d un-ironically wear a popped collar and read trade magazines about architecture.”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“She knew that if she needed to understand what was in my heart, all she had to do was pick up whatever I was reading at the time, and she’d see it.”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club

“Two more perfect people for each other had never existed. “Sloane is going to be your new nurse.” Before either of them could protest—a thing I knew was coming from the way they both opened their mouths to speak at the same time—I did the one thing I was best at. Talking. “You probably haven’t heard yet, but you got Sloane fired from the library today,” I told Arthur.”
― Lucy Gilmore, The Lonely Hearts Book Club