The Co-op Quotes

“Because when I’m not what works for people at that time in their lives, when I’m not a convenient version of me, I always manage to lose them.”
― Tarah Dewitt, The Co-op

“When you have a bad day ma fille, think about it from beginning to end. Walk your way through it. Was it really a bad day, or was it a few bad moments? What part of your day would you like to hold onto before you close your eyes? Find that good bit, and let it be the thing you go to sleep to.”
― Tarah Dewitt, The Co-op

“Me with my phony charm and bad temper and her with her worse temper and cruel-toned apathy. I wonder if there’s some comfort to be had in being able to show those sides to someone and have them still stick around the way that we are,”
― Tarah Dewitt, The Co-op

“Tell me what you’re thinking,” he says.
I answer without preamble, “That I’m happy.” A tear springs loose and slides away. “That I’m happy here with you, in our half torn apart house. That I think—I think I’d be content to serve coffee every day and watch the waves and never do anything extraordinary and still feel like I have the best life.”
― Tarah Dewitt, The Co-op

“I like to keep people where I understand them. I typically choose to do that through charm. Keep them happy with you, but keep it surface level. Keep them just far enough so they stay in focus and I can see every move before it comes. Too close and they blur, too many things are easy to miss. When someone’s arms are wrapped around you it’s easy to miss the knife in their hands.”
― Tarah Dewitt, The Co-op

“I just want to say it as much as possible. Want to say it enough times to make you forget the one time I didn’t.”
― Tarah DeWitt, The Co-op

“I don't know how to do this, how to have a discussion where feelings are involved. All I know is fighting and retreating, passion eclipsed by resentment.”
― Tarah DeWitt, The Co-op

“I'm angry at all the parts of him I'll never get.”
― Tarah DeWitt, The Co-op

“The messes and mistakes we make as parents are more about us, than our children.”
― Tarah Dewitt, The Co-op

“When you have a bad day, ma fille, think about it from beginning to end. Walk your way through it. Was it really a bad day, or was it a few bad moments? What part of your day would you like to hold on to before you close your eyes? Find that good bit, and let it be the thing you fall asleep to.”
― Tarah Dewitt, The Co-op

“Because when I’m not easy for people, , when I’m not a convenient version of me, I always manage to lose them.”
― Tarah Dewitt, The Co-op

“Kindly eat glass,”
― Tarah Dewitt, The Co-op

“Dipped cones taste like the first time with her, every time. Like trembling, fumbling limbs and foggy windows and being verbally whipped and then sweetly kissed. Every jam-packed beach with out-of-towners ranging from the jean-clad to the perpetually barefoot all take me back to that summer. To being sad, angry, lost. To being completely in over my head with a girl who was way above my pay grade and never missed a chance to remind me.”
― Tarah Dewitt, The Co-op

“when no one listens to you or considers you, you just . . . take what you can get.”
― Tarah Dewitt, The Co-op

“that’s when the anger shows up. I get angry at all the questions I’ll never have answered.”
― Tarah Dewitt, The Co-op

“after my dad had died and taken a piece of my mom with him. And even before that when he’d broken us all.”
― Tarah Dewitt, The Co-op

“I think the purpose of team-building is that it’s cooperative and everyone approaches it with an open mind and a good outlook, thereby keeping up morale,” he says meaningfully, dipping his chin and lifting his brows. “I suppose we could take turns picking said activity if that would help? I’d be happy to visit your coven, write up surveys, stand outside of Kindergarten classrooms with signs telling them that Santa’s a hoax and your mom decapitated your Elf on the Shelf … Throw M&M’s at them while they cry. You know, whatever it is that you like to do for fun.”
― Tarah Dewitt, The Co-op