Quotes from Paula McLain

but I believe even the toughest kinds of

Over time, I've developed a kind of radar for victims, and Cameron Curtis is deeply familiar, almost as if a neon sign flashes over her head, telegraphing her story, her vulnerability. And not just to me. However the sign has gotten there, I know predators can see it too, luridly bright and unmistakable.

He pulled me into the room and way lay on the featherbed and made love. And I was reminded of what was best about us. How very easy and natural we could be as bodies, with no sharp angles or missteps and no need for talking. How in bed, as nowhere else, he was my favorite animal and I was his.

Jock's drinking didn't help matters. At four o'clock every afternoon when we were in Bombay, we met the rest of the family on the veranda for cocktails. There was a ritual to it,

How could I possibly judge you? We each have to make our choices, and then find a way to live with them. And if we can't, well, then, that's when we know something has to change.

If you're ready to make the mad dash I'm game.

Did you ever think it could be like this? The way we're happening to each other?

Jock's drinking didn't help matters. At four o'clock every afternoon when we were in Bombay, we met the rest of the family on the veranda for cocktails. There was a ritual to it, I learned very quickly, every feature played out to the letter, how much ice went in, how much lime, the air filling with a tangy zest that I felt at the back of my throat.

A town like this feels so safe and apart from the outside world. You start to wonder if it's dangerous.

This war was only about greed, it seemed to me, and insanity. Adolf Hitler was a madman—everyone knew that—but he was also a child, a red-faced, angry baby bent on total dominion. There had been a time, perhaps, when the world could have joined forces to stop him, but that had come and gone. Now, there was only a chance to temper the size of the catastrophe, to staunch the loss of lives, thrashing back against evil with torches or pitchforks.

So I park in the shade and crack the window to give her plenty of fresh air.

The trick is learning to take things as they come and fully, too, with no resistance or fear, not trying to grip them too tightly or make them bend.

It puts me into a kind of trance, but my hands know what to do even as my mind remains muffled and still. I only have to reach for the petcock and switch over the tank. The engine will start again.

Too much was new about India, and the days had no anchor. Jock might have fallen for the bold girl I was when I was fourteen, but he didn't really know me any more than I knew him.

The waves reach up and the fathomless sky pushes down.

I've prepared for everything as well as I can, but is anyone truly ready for death? Was Maia when she saw the ground flying up to meet her?

playground studded with one of those

everything about this moment is so sharp and lovely, I do something completely out of character and just let myself have it.

I want to write something, but I don't think I can without being emotional." "Just make a start. Begin anywhere." "It might be terrible." "It might be. That's not the worst thing." "No," I agreed. And it wasn't. The worst thing—I already knew it—would be feeling too scared to try.

One night at the Purveses', the table was set with a feast that hardened and grew cold because Jock's mother had tipped back so much gin she'd forgotten the cook had called us in long before. She listed in the darkening courtyard and finally leaned into a potted palm and closed her eyes. No one else seemed to notice or care.

sometimes you have to start there, with almost nothing. And hope for everything anyway.

After talking with many of them and seeing how they lived, I realized they didn't have an endless supply of bravery, because no one ever did. When courage failed them, they would find a way to stand their ground anyway and fight on spirit alone. They had grit rather than bravery.

I hoped that poor soul in the rowboat had found his way to shore. But not everyone out in a storm wants to be saved.

It was one of his qualities that most frustrated me, how once you had a black tick in his book, you were pretty much done for.