Quotes from Sara Gruen

I sat in silence, absorbing this. They'd wagered that Mr. Ross wouldn't throw me out if I was on my own, and no thanks to them, they were right. I wasn't just their plaything, their pretty, fake wife. I was their unwitting pawn, theirs to strategically play.

She walks to the window and adjusts the horizontal blinds to let in sunlight. Time to rise and shine. What for ? I grumble. Because the good Lord has seen fit to bless you with another day, she says.

It was full of luxurious trappings and shiny baubles, and that had blinded me to the fact that nothing about it was real.

At the edges, near the tracks, tall weeds have taken over -- tough plants with stringy stalks, small leaves, and compact flowers. Designed to waste energy on nothing but getting their blooms up toward the sun.

don't smoke.

Before the end of the date, he had proposed.

Anna's parents were staunch Wee Frees, and she wasn't even allowed to wear face powder, never mind attend a dance. Music itself was not allowed, except on Sundays, and then it had to be for the sake of worship only, and sung unadorned. The senior McKenzies were so strict they confined their cockerel under a bushel basket on the Sabbath so he wouldn't get up to anything untoward with the hens.

In the entire history of our marriage, it was the only secret I kept from her, and eventually it became impossible to fix. With a secret like that, at some point the secret itself becomes irrelevant. The fact that you kept it does not.

home, she sulked with extravagance, and I learned early that silence was anything but peaceful. She was always upset about some slight, real or imagined, and more than capable of creating a full-blown crisis out of thin air.

Cracker Jack!

world wars, cold wars, guerrilla wars, and Sputnik

hate this bizarre policy of protective exclusion

I pick up my cutlery: fork in my left hand, knife in my right -- European-style, like my mother.

Actually, it's not so much that I've forgotten. It's more like I've stopped keeping track.

Age is a terrible thief. Just when you're getting the hang of life, it knocks your legs out from under you and stoops your back.

ones I had watched.

Age is a terrible thief. Just when you're getting the hang of life, it knocks your legs out from under you and stoops your back. It makes you ache and muddies your head and silently

His mother was exacting revenge because he'd dared to marry me, and his father—well, we weren't exactly sure. Either

I had my whole life planned.. I knew exactly where it was taking me.

Gorillas are in danger of being wiped out by the Ebola virus. I feel like we have limited time to get to know them and understand them and they're going to disappear - that's terrifically sad. Wouldn't it be great if we could stop that?

When two people are meant to be together, they will be together. It's fate.

With a secret like that, at some point the secret itself becomes irrelevant. The fact that you kept it does not.

I want her to melt into me, like butter on toast. I want to absorb her and walk around for the rest of my days with her encased in my skin. I want.

Life is the most spectacular show on earth ?