The Last Word Quotes

“Stop overthinking. Anticipation is always worse than reality. Always.”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“there are three T’s. Time. Tears. Talking. They’ll get you through it. Trust me. Trust them. Whatever it takes, keep going.”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“Opinions are like assholes, the saying goes, and the internet has millions of both.”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“You never know how finite your time together really is until it’s up.”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“Evil works hard to rationalize itself.”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“You’ll never know if you don’t let people in.”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“In the end, you’ll remember feelings more than words,”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“It’s nice to submerge yourself in someone else’s world, to luxuriate in the handcrafted details and admire the false ceilings.”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“Don’t self-edit. Don’t second-guess. You can polish words on paper all you want. But not speech. Talking has a special, in-the-moment honesty. The flaws make it real.”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“She’s not reading for pleasure”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“But I hope there’s something after death”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“She’s been told introverted personalities recharge with alone time, something like managing a social battery. And while that’s accurate—because most people tend to exhaust the ever-loving shit out of Emma—she’s always pictured herself more like clay, a shapeless form that reluctantly morphs to meet the daily needs of her surroundings.”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“herrings. Tragic backstories. She already has another downloaded for the evening. It’s nice to submerge yourself in someone else’s world, to luxuriate in the handcrafted details and admire the false ceilings.”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“YOU OPEN THE FRIDGE She nods. YOU TAKE A SIP OF MILK “Okay.” IT TASTES SPOILED She sighs. “I know where this is going.” DO YOU: A. THROW THE MILK OUT? B. DRINK THE ENTIRE GODDAMN CARTON, TO MAKE SURE IT’S SPOILED?”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“More often, their comfortable evenings at home were spent apart. Rather than joining each other in their respective worlds, she would read alone with Laika curled at her feet while Shawn quietly toiled on his model trains downstairs. She regrets this now. You never know how finite your time together really is until it’s up.”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“There’s so much wonder out there. Planets made entirely of diamonds or ice, worlds where it rains molten glass whipped into knives by hurricane-force winds. Deep, dark places where the laws of physics as we understand them simply cease to be. Swirls of red and violet nebulae hundreds of light-years across. A human lifetime, traveling at the speed of light, couldn’t even cross a tiny fraction. She smiled. I guess I’m in love with the beauty and terror of it.”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“Deek has always been superhumanly good at guessing, right?”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“Deek recommended the single worst e-book she’s ever read: Murder Mountain by H. G. Kane.”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“The guest toilet sometimes flushes itself.”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“Why should Emma care that this self-proclaimed “writer” spent six months of his or her life producing that literary bowel movement? She spent four hours of hers reading it. They both lost.”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“It’s telling that the most authentic character in the entire book is the serial killer.”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“She studies her own words for a moment longer. Was she too harsh on this stranger? For all she knows, this author could be twelve. In fact, that would explain a lot. Who cares? Stop looking at it.”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“This gave her a small rush, being invited to participate in the fiction. Maybe it’s why she’s always loved to read and why she vanished so utterly into her books after the funeral. There’s joy in it. Every last detail is handcrafted. Every inch. Every building, clump of foliage, and convincing (or unconvincing) rock face.”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“Someone is here. From the front door, Emma hears a violent, hinge-rattling knock. She carries a kitchen knife underhand. Her bare feet pad on cold tile. “Who is it?” Silence.”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“Instead, her future husband smiled. You should talk more, he said.”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“Very little frightens her—the worst thing that can happen to any human already happened to her months ago—but she fears what she becomes when she’s alone, where her mind will go if she lets it wander. Her steady diet of digital fast food—ninety-nine-cent distractions good, bad, and everything in between—is enough to keep her occupied. For now.”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“She feels a faint tug in her stomach. Opinions are like assholes, the saying goes, and the internet has millions of both.”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“Soon he’ll be close enough to smell again.”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“By slandering me and limiting my readers, you are attacking not only my daily income but also my chances of ever getting noticed by an agent or editor.”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word

“So it’s not unreasonable to suspect that her forwarding address here at Strand Beach is somewhere out there, too, within reach of someone savvy enough to find it. Or vengeful enough.”
― Taylor Adams, The Last Word