Quotes from Liane Moriarty

And even though I adore the fact that Francesca has Ben's eyes, I also see now that her biological connection to us is irrelevant. She is her own little person. She is Francesca. If we weren't her "natural" parents, we would still have loved her just as much.

That was the irony: Her mother loved things so much that she had nothing.

It was interesting how you could say things when you where walking that you might not otherwise have said with the pressure of eye contact across a table.

Mothers took their mothering so seriously now. Their frantic little faces...Ponytails swinging. Eyes fixed on the mobile phones held in the palms of their hands like compasses.

she was remembering what it was like when you broke up with someone. Conversations became so hopelessly tangled. You had to be polite and precise. You couldn't safely criticize anymore, because you didn't have the right. You'd lost your immunity.

It was interesting that fury and fear could look so much the same.

We'd traveled, we'd been to lots of parties, lots of movies and concerts, we'd slept in. We'd done all those things that people with children seem to miss so passionately. We didn't want those things anymore. We wanted a baby.

Why did she give up wine for Lent? Polly was more sensible. She had given up strawberry jam. Cecilia had never seen Polly show more than a passing interest in strawberry jam, although now, of course, she was always catching her standing at the open fridge, staring at it longingly. The power of denial.

The words "I´m sorry" felt like an insult. You said "I´m sorry" when you bumped against someone´s supermarket trolley. There need to be bigger words.

Did she love him as much as she hated him? Did she hate him as much as she loved him?

Finally she stopped resisting and called a truce. Young Alice was allowed to stay as long as she didn't eat too much chocolate.

It was good to remember that for every horrible memory from her marriage, there was also a happy one. She wanted to see it clearly, to understand that it wasn't all black, or all white. It was a million colors. And yes, ultimately it hadn't worked out, but that was okay. Just because a marriage ended didn't mean that it hadn't been happy at times. She thought about that

When you were young you talked about 'falling in love' with such amusing gravity, as if it were an actual recordable event, when what was it really? Chemicals. Hormones. A trick of the mind.

Was there anything better than to be wanted? Was that all anyone really needed?

Women and their bodies! The most abusive and toxic of relationships. Masha had seen women pinch at the flesh of their stomachs with such brutal self-loathing they left bruises. Meanwhile their husbands fondly patted their own much larger stomachs with rueful pride.

Polly had arrived in the world outraged to discover that her sisters had gotten there before her.

Relationships don't stay the same. There isn't time.

Stick with the nice boys, Chloe!" said Madeline after a moment. "Like Daddy. Bad boys don't bring you coffee in bed, I'll tell you that for free.

It was always like that. They never said sorry. They just threw down their still-loaded weapons, ready for next time.

It drove her to distraction the way women wanted to bond over self-hatred.

every relationship had its own "love account." Doing something kind for your partner was like a deposit. A negative comment was a withdrawal. The trick was to keep your account in credit.

Watching someone have a panic attack was like looking in the eyes of someone trapped behind glass, drowning right in front of you.

Shut up," said Madeline. "I thought we didn't say 'shut up' in our house." "Fuck off, then," said Madeline.

Nobody felt embarrassed in front of nice geeky people. That's why they were relaxing to be around.