Quotes from Liane Moriarty

Bonnie is so 'calm,' you see. The opposite of me. She speaks in one of those soft . . . low . . . melodious voices that make you want to punch a wall.

When she looked at photos of her children when they were little, she sometimes thought, Did I notice how beautiful they were? Was I actually there? Did I just skim the surface of my entire damned life?)

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. She could have fallen in love with Connor. Easily. Falling in love was easy. Anyone could fall. It was holding on that was tricky.

I'd be at work where poeple respected my opinions, said Nick. And then, I'd come home and it was like I was the village idiot.

A thank-you card," repeated Alice. "Yes. I know, I know, it's teaching them good manners and everything, but I sort of hate those thank-you cards. I always imagine the kids groaning and having to be forced into writing them. It makes me feel like an elderly aunt.

Tragedy made you petty and spiteful. It didn't give you any great knowledge or insight. She didn't understand a damned thing about life except that it was arbitrary and cruel, and some people got away with murder while others made one tiny, careless mistake and paid a terrible price.

No, no. She's a career woman. She has a full-time nanny. I think she just imported a new one from France. She likes European stuff. Renata doesn't have time to help at the school. She has board meetings to attend. Whenever you talk to her she's just been to a board meeting, or she's on her way back from a board meeting, or she's preparing for a board meeting. I mean, how often do these boards have to meet?

She found that the less she thought, the more often she found simple truths appearing right in front of her.

It feels like you can't breathe, but you actually are breathing. It feels like you'll never stop crying, but you actually will.

If he could just have one more chance, he'd act like the man he'd always believed himself to be.

But then she just got tired of hating him and started loving him again. It was easier.

Perhaps all grown-ups were just children carefully putting on their grown-up disguises each day and then acting accordingly.

You get what you get and you don't get upset!" screamed Fred.

the world, right this very moment people were suffering unimaginable atrocities and you couldn't close your heart completely, but you couldn't leave it wide open either, because otherwise how could you possibly live your life, when through pure, random luck you got to live in paradise? You had to register the existence of evil, do the little that you could, and then close your mind and think about new shoes.

Baths, she thought, were just like her relationships, all "ooh, ah" in the beginning and then suddenly, without warning, she had to get out, out, out!

He hadn't left her for something better, but for something new.

But I feel ugly, because one man said it was so, and that made it so. It's pathetic.

How could she not be with someone forever when even their feet-his huge, not especially attractive feet, with their long hairy toes-felt like home?

I can hardly bear to think of ourselves hugging and crying and making giggly phone calls, like we were in some inane sitcom. We actually discussed names. Names! I want to shout back through the years at myself, "Just because you're pregnant doesn't mean you get a baby, you idiots!

about six months ago, after my fortieth, I started to feel so...the only word I can think of is 'bland.' Or 'flat' might be a better word.

There was nothing worse than having to feel sorry for people who had wronged you. You don't want lottery wins for your enemies, but you don't want tragedies for them either. Then they got the upper hand. Damn those Delaneys.

Do you think you were locked in a cupboard as a child?" Cecilia had asked him once (she wouldn't have put it past his mother), but he said he was pretty sure he wasn't.

I'm sure it's innate, it's just biology, for a man to want a woman who can give him children.

Raising awareness. It's a good thing. Makes people think twice.