Quotes from Susan Wiggs

One team takes their shirts off, the other leaves them on, said Paulie. I vote Rosa is on the shirts-off team. In your dreams, she said. His gaze gave her the once-over. You guessed it. Go shampoo your brain, Paulie

The main boy—the one who was calling the shots—pushed

Okay, did you know there's a basketball court on the top floor of the Supreme Court building?" "Nobody knows that," said Fletcher. "I do. Highest court in the land.

What I mistook for love was simply a powerful form of wishful thinking

This wasn't about him and his grief. It was about figuring out what was best for Derek's kids. If he started letting himself feel his loss in the depths of his soul, he might get sucked so far down into a dark hole that he'd never find his way out. And that would make him useless to these children.

think about kissing boys all the time. Me and all my friends. We even practice making out with our pillows.

As a child, she'd been a great reader, finding the ultimate escape within the pages of a story. She learned that opening a book was like opening a set of double doors—the next step would take her inside to Neverland or Nod, Sunnybrook Farm or Mulberry Street.

protested that a big majority of Black men were drafted compared to whites. It seemed wrong that men who were still struggling for equality at home were being shipped overseas for a cause most people didn't even understand.

Often, the most important part of a conversation was the waiting.

It takes nothing to father a child. It takes everything to be a dad.

Why do you keep trying to make me feel better? Because it sucks for you, the things you found out today, and there's no fixing any of them. And because I like you. You like me... That's what I said. How? What? How do you like me? As a person you feel sorry for because I just found out some really bad news? As someone you've been working with this summer? As an ex-girlfriend you still have old feelings for? Close. As an ex-girlfriend I have new feelings for.

Things happen as they are meant to happen. There is no grand plan, just flawed human beings bumbling through life.

with adoption, your most sacred creation disappears without you. You can't hold him in your arms, you can't claw at the boundary between you. It's . . . a hollowness. Like I'm missing a piece of myself.

The chilly blue of loneliness was a shadow on snow. The

Perhaps Jamie hadn't meant to teach her to bear up under unbearable pain, but he had shown her that appearances were everything, and illusion was a powerful tool.

your smile is my sunshine.

The Sunrose Building is part of my blood and bone. It is a repository of treasures seen and unseen. I need to stay in order to keep my mind from wandering away. It is the only way to keep the world intact.

What's it going to take to shut you up? she asked. He spread his arms, palms out, and surrendered. Give me something else to do with my mouth.

Can I carry Something? Caroline offered. Just your emotional baggage, Virginia said, picking up an appetizer tray.

Rourke was the Grim Reaper with a hard-on.

There was a stampede to the food- panzanella with tomatoes and bread, every conceivable variety of pasta, grilled sausages, fresh fish roasted in foil, Napoleon pastries and reginatta made with creamy half-melted ice cream.

Just being a good person doesn't necessarily entitle you to a good life.

she read books the way an addict swallowed pills. She devoured stories one after the other, trying not to let reality intrude too deeply.

A kid deserved to take pride and joy in his identity.