Quotes from Deb Caletti

And right then I learn something very simple and fundamental about love. That it is there or it is not there. That some of our biggest troubles probably come when we try to convince ourselves it is there when it isn't, or that it isn't there when it is.

Love at first sight should send you running, if you know what's good for you. It's your dark pieces having instant recognition with their dark pieces. You're an idiot if you think it means you've met your soul mate.

For her, being Catholic isn't just about religion-it's about superstition and safekeeping and tradition.

We have longer ways to go," Annabelle would say in a pro-found Kerouac voice. "No matter," Kat would answer. "The road is life.

That's where Ian and I fell in love—a Little League game.

Anxiety is like being in freeway traffic all the time. There's the constant sense of dodging and darting, seeking your chance to cut in, the irritation of others pulling ahead of you. You hit the accelerator; slam the brakes. You scout and scan for danger. Here, though, there is no traffic and no freeway. There is gentle company and books on shelves. There is quiet. There's fun. Dawn Celeste has a laugh that sounds like a pot bubbling over. Everyone gets to do as they wish.

Ah, human beings. We cause problems to solve problems.

People plus people plus anger is how things can change.

One of the disappointing truths about divorce is that when you have children together, you are never free of the one you've tried so hard to leave. Never.

History can feel so distant sometimes, and other times, close enough that you can feel it right inside of you, close enough that you can see it moving away from you and toward you at the same time.

but love is always a risk. Life is. You could step into the street and get hit by a car, but then again, you could step into the street and get to the other side.

I was angry, you know. The kind of angry that makes you feel dangerous. Under my feet, the earth shook. I imagined how it would look when everything began to fall.

often enough, we owe our good fortune to someone else's loss.

Nice is often just powerlessness with a smile.

We are all a volume on a shelf of a library, a story unto ourselves, never possibly described with one word or even very accurately with thousands. A person is never as quiet or unrestrained as they seem, or as bad or good, as vulnerable or as strong, as sweet or as feisty; we are thickly layered, page upon lying page, behind simple covers. And love - it is not the book itself, but the binding. It can rip us apart or hold us together.

but if love wasn't just yours first, it was like cutting up and handing out your birthday cake before you blew out the candles.

I didn't think it was such a hot idea to encourage kids to believe they led movie-star lives, even for a night.

Oh, the power of the delete. It felt fabulous. I wished I could go around deleting like crazy. I'd delete suspicious spots on X-rays and malls at Christmas, car troubles and tragic events in history, the world's and my own.

back of that woman's dress that night

The first rule of marital success: Don't marry crazy and don't be crazy.

You're an asshole alive, you're still an asshole dead.

Anger has grand plans that sometimes look foolish later.

You gotta love an old-fashioned word like "quarrelsome." Today she'd just be a bitch.

I thought I might cry, the way you do when someone gives you some kindness when you most need it but when it seems the most surprising thing.