Quotes from Gillian Flynn

Watching the river flow over fish-white feet, so intently, utterly self-possessed even as a child.

But there's no app for a bourbon buzz on a warm day in a cool, dark bar. The world will always want a drink.

But everyone buys bulk because—unlike Manhattanites—they all have space to store twenty-four jars of sweet pickles. And—unlike Manhattanites—they all have uses for twenty-four jars of sweet pickles.

The woman got shit done, and she was not one to abandon a project (say, her fixer-upper husband, for instance), even if she decided she didn't like it.

Once you've crossed state lines, you don't phone to ask if you can drop in.

I was not raised by big-dreamer parents who pictured their child as a future president. I was raised by pragmatic parents who pictured their child as a future office worker of some sort, making a living of some sort.

I felt no particular allegiance to the town. This was the place my sister died, the place I started cutting myself. A town so suffocating and small, you tripped over people you hated every day. People who knew things about you. It's the kind of place that leaves a mark.

Okay, so what's your favorite color, your favorite ice cream flavor, and your favorite season? "Blue, coffee, and winter." "Winter. No one likes winter." "It gets dark early, I like that." "Why?" Because that means the day has ended. I like checking days off a calendar—

I don't know that we are actually human at this point, those of us who are like most of us, who grew up with TV and movies and now the Internet. If we are betrayed, we know the words to say; when a loved one dies, we know the words to say. If we want too play the stud or the smart-ass or the fool, we know the words to say. We are all working from the same dog-eared script.

Young ladies must be in control of their bodies, because young boys are not.

I feel like a warm gust of wind could exhale my way and I'd be disappeared forever, not even a sliver of fingernail left behind. On some days, I find this thought calming; on others it chills me.

He has claimed me, placed a flag in me: I was here first, she's mine, mine.

vacant-brained

He's calling you a Cool Girl to fool you! That's what men do: They try to make it sound like you are the Cool Girl so you will bow to their wishes.

My dad was a man of infinite varieties of bitterness, rage, distaste. In my lifelong struggle to avoid becoming him, I'd developed an inability to demonstrate much negative emotion at all.

The Dunne kids don't perform hugs well.

You just want an excuse to stay," she whispered. "You two, you're fucking addicted to each other. You are literally going to be a nuclear family, you do know that? You will explode.

It was a constant problem: too much control or no control at all.

The world will always want a drink.

revoloteando por todas partes, ayudándola a enroscarse la bufanda roja de punto, una vez, dos. A la tercera se la anudé correctamente y nuestras caras estaban cerca y sus mejillas igual de sonrosadas que si hubiera pasado un feliz día navideño montando en trineo. Algo así

I've been tracking Nick's moods. Toward me. Just to make sure I'm not crazy. I've got a calendar, and I put hearts on any day Nick seems to love me again, and black squares when he doesn't.

It was kind of her to say, but he did do harm. I doubt my sister will ever marry: If she's sad or upset or angry, she needs to be alone – she fears a man dismissing her womanly tears.

What a generous thing that is, I realize, for a husband to try to make his wife laugh.

I understand now why so many horror movies use that device—the mysterious knock on the door—because it has the weight of a nightmare. You don't know what's out there, yet you know you'll open it. You'll think what I think: No one bad ever knocks.