Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney Quotes

People abandoned one another constantly without performing the courtesy of of actually disappearing. They left, but didn't, lurking about, a constant reminder of what could or should have been.

Neither of them even had time to scream.

She believed in second chances, sometimes more than first chances, which were wasted on youth and indiscretion.

I you want people to judge you based on the inside, don't distract them from the outside.

Decades of behavioral blunders and ill-conceived marriages and businesses run amok had left next to nothing by the time Leonard was in high school. He'd wangled himself an engineering scholarship to Cornell and then a job with Dow Chemical during a time he referred to, reverently, as the Dawn of the Absorbency Revolution.

Being somebody's looking glass is not your job.

She was so much better at being alone; being alone came more naturally to her. She led a life of deliberate solitude, and if occasional loneliness crept in, she knew how to work her way out of that particular divot. Or even better, how to sink in and absorb its particular comforts.

Parents are temporary custodians, keeping watch and offering love and trying to leave the child better than they found him.

Sometimes a small change could make all the difference.

She was open to love, but she was best at managing her own happiness; it was other people's happiness that sunk her.

Right now, it felt like there was nowhere for his thoughts to alight that wasn't rife with land mines of regret or anger or guilt.

It's not your job to be anyone's mirror.

She supposed she could Google, but she preferred to wonder.

This is nice,' Melody said, picking up a red leather box with a vintage watch inside.
'Yes, it is nice. It's the watch I gave Walker as a wedding gift.'
'He gave it back?'
'Actually, he sold it back to the person I bought it from who alerted me and I reacquired it.'
'I'm sorry. That sounds upsetting.'
'It was. Very. Especially since he sold the watch to buy combs for my long hair and without knowing what he had done I sold my hair to buy a leather case for this watch.

Everyone's always on the hunt for a mirror. It's basic psychology. You want to see yourself reflected in others. Others - your sister, your parents - they want to look at you and see themselves. They want you to be a flattering reflection of them - and vice-versa. It's normal. I suppose it's really normal if you're a twin. But being somebody else's mirror? That is not your job." Nora

I hate wearing flats," she said, tugging her fitted white blouse a little lower. "They make me feel flat all over.

I'm curious," he said, "is telling someone to relax ever helpful? It's like saying 'breathe' to someone who is hyperventilating or 'swallow' to a person who's choking. It's a completely useless admonition." "I

I used to read three newspapers every morning. Three.

was probably mad at all of them. She wondered

They'd fallen into their old ways, accusatory and evasive, which was reassuring in a perverted way. Leo understood the nasty pull of the regrettable familiar, how the old grooves could be so much more satisfying than the looming unknown. It's addicts stayed addicts.

behind her out in their yard screeching and laughing. Their dad was yelling: "Don't eat the

[Jack:] 'I was twenty-four when I met Walker. Do you know I've never lived alone? I'm forty-four years old and I've never lived alone. The first few weeks Walker was gone, I didn't know what to do with myself. I'd stay in the store until late, pick up some takeout, and just watch television until I fell asleep.'
[... Melody:] 'Sounds kind of great right now.'
Jack looked at her and nodded. 'It is kind of great. That's my point. I miss Walker. I miss him terribly and I don't know what's going to happen. But for the first time ever, I'm only accountable to myself and I like it. I'm not proud of why I'm at this point, but I'm doing my best to figure it out, and I'm kind of enjoying it, parts of it anyway.

This was the part she hated, the part of a relationship that always nudged her to bail, the part where someone else's misery or expectations or neediness crept into her carefully prescribed world. It was such a burden, other people's lives.

He missed Stephanie, the ease between them, her solid and comforting presence. Sitting across from him, in the light of the fire, she blazed with health and well-being and good humor. "I

People might not change but their incentives could.

If you want to predict a person's behavior, identify his or her incentives. Leo