Quotes from Gillian Flynn

Friends see most of each other's flaws. Spouses see every awful last bit. If she punished a friend of a few months by throwing herself down a flight of stairs, what would she do to a man who was dumb enough to marry her?

We were the two unlikeliest people to charm information out of someone. Stunted human beings who got awkward every time we tried to express ourselves.

There isn't a replacement toddling around; you're it. It makes you desperate to be flawless, and it also makes you drunk with the power. In such ways are despots made.

Amy m'avait fait croire que j'étais exceptionnel, que je pouvais prétendre au même niveau de jeu qu'elle. C'était ce qui nous avait faits, c'était ce qui nous avait perdus.

I am doing my thing, my impulse thing: What if I leap from the theater balcony right now? What if I tongue the homeless man across from me on the subway? What if I sit down on the floor of this party by myself and eat everything on that deli tray, including the cigarettes?

No. I couldn't allow that. No. Never. Never. He doesn't get to do this to me and still fucking win. I changed my name for that piece of shit. Historical records have been altered -- Amy Elliott to Amy Dunne -- like it's nothing. No, he does not get to win. So I began to think of a different story, a better story, that would destroy Nick for doing this to me. A story that would restore my perfection. It would make me the hero, flawless, and adored. Because everyone loves the dead girl.

Things may not be great, but things will be okay.

He is the kind of guy who carries himself like he gets laid alot

My penis lay pathetically along my left thigh, like some small animal washed ashore.

Because you can't be as in love as we were and not have it invade your bone marrow. Our kind of love can go into remission, but it's always waiting to return. Like the world's sweetest cancer.

in the late '90s, the last gasp of the glory days, although no one knew it then. New York was packed with writers, real writers, because there were magazines, real magazines, loads of them. This was back when the Internet was still some exotic pet kept in the corner of the publishing world—throw some kibble at it, watch it dance on its little leash, oh quite cute, it definitely won't kill us in the night.

Finger, whore, hollow!

We were the first human beings who would never see anything for the first time.

Good Lord, I hated her, but you had to admire the bitch.

My dad had limitations. That's what my good-hearted mom always told us. He had limitations, but he meant no harm. 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.

They always call depression the blues, but I would have been happy to waken to a periwinkle outlook. Depression to me is urine yellow.

She followed obligingly, and I kept waiting for those knicks at my heels.

He teased things out in me that I didn't know existed: a lightness, a humor, an ease. It was as if he hollowed me out and filled me with feathers.

I'd been good about booze for six months, but nothing counted here.

We stare at the wonders of the world, dull-eyed, underwhelmed. Mona Lisa, the Pyramids, the Empire State Building. Jungle animals on attack, ancient icebergs collapsing, volcanoes erupting. I can't recall a single amazing thing I have seen firsthand that I didn't immediately reference to a movie or TV show.

Plus, there was Amma and her mysterious friendliness toward me. I hated to admit it, but I was becoming obsessed with the girl.

You just seem kind of not yourself with her. And: There's a difference between really loving someone and loving the idea of her. And finally: The important thing is she makes you really happy.

I feel my father's rage rise up in me in the ugliest way.

And every single person in this case lies, is lying, did lie.