Adrienne Brodeur Quotes

Desperate to become enriched by books, I sometimes barely remembered what I'd read, yet the unconscious effect of so many sentences felt cumulative, like recurring dreams.

You have no idea how much you can learn about yourself by plunging into someone else's life" Margot said.
I smiled at her, not fully understanding what she was saying but feeling a small ping of comprehension, an olive pit smacking the wall of my consciousness.
"You can read your way into a whole new narrative for yourself" Margot promised.

I knew only what pleased my mother; I didn't have a moral compass. It would be years before I understood the forces that shaped who she was and who I became and recognized the hurt that we both caused.

I felt as if I were watching myself from above, unable to comprehend the happiness of the people around me.

Deception takes commitment, vigilance, and a very good memory. To keep the truth buried, you must tend to it. For years and years, my job was to pile on sand - fistfuls, shovelfuls, bucketfuls, whatever the moment necessitated - in an effort to keep my mother's secret buried.

Here was my choice: I could continue down the well-trod path upon which I'd been running for so very long and pass along the inheritance like a baton, as blithely as I did my light hair and fair skin. My daughter could do her best to outrun it...
Or I could slow down, catch my breath, and look mindfully for a new path. There had to be another way and I owed it to my daughter to find it.