The Perfect Son Quotes
"She had no plans to make her final peace with God or die in the clouds."
"Ella gave a sympathetic huh that seemed to say, Spouses, eh?"
"I’m an Oxford man, Harry. That means something."
"What-ifs multiplied like a combat-ready squad of Star Trek Tribbles: cute, furry, and armed with bazookas."
"Every time Ella and her best friend opened a bottle of cabernet, Katherine accused Felix of being a control freak, which he was."
"The discomfort in her throat and chest eased, but the anger had returned. Good. She would nurse it, stay strong despite the exhaustion."
"Mothers and daughters can share shoes. They don’t have to share defective genes; they don’t have to both die of heart attacks before their fiftieth birthdays."
"He could live in America for another seventeen years and never adapt to the sight of an armed cop."
"Yes, I want my wife." I want her to walk through that door, smile, and say, "Let’s go home."
"I love you so much, Ella Bella," he whispered into her ear. Don’t leave me.
"You have to take over, Felix—provide the infrastructure that lets Harry be Harry."
"I’m his go-to person twenty-four seven, and I can’t be that person right now."
"He’s a sweet, all-over-the-place kid who needs help structuring his life and a lot of parenting."
"Trying to talk with Dad’s worse than falling into a copperhead’s nest."
"Random acts of kindness—my favorite thing in the world."
"No one does. I wanted it that way, so I could have a normal life."
"He’s an arrogant prick. Every time you look at him, imagine a giant penis."
"Thinking about the beautiful junior called Harry."
"Maybe you could try harder to disguise the tics."
"You’re not doing that casual hookup thing, are you? You do know that’s how kids get STDs."
"I have a double single malt in my right hand. Does that answer your question?"
"Movement is part of Harry’s thought process. He literally cannot think if he sits still."
"We love each other and we’ve created a life together. What else matters?"
"We’re like that Simple Minds song you played for me the other week, ‘When Two Worlds Collide.’"
"I’m pretty anxious—about everything. You worry."
"One has to face one’s demons and keep going."
"Your mother understood me. That was the difference."
"The car is unlocked, you know. And since I’m not officially a chauffeur, I don’t need to open the door for you."
"But what if that’s all there is? What if it’s just a connection of need?"
"We chose to be on different tracks because we did what works for our family."
"What if you hesitate and someone else asks her out? Do it. I dare you. No, I double dare you."
"That’s okay. I’ll tell him to ask one of the other guys."
"Once would have been enough, Harry. I have a headache."
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Fitzwilliam," Sammie said.
"Sammie can’t get a ride this evening sooo can she come home with us?"
"Do you ever wonder what might have happened if we hadn’t both been on the Tube that day, in the same carriage, six feet apart?"
"Let’s put it this way: yes, I dated a lot of women."
"What exactly did she tell you?" And which part did she leave out?
"What you mean is that she accepted you the way you were. Warts and all."
"What a waste if they were; what a waste if they weren’t."
"The lunatics had taken over the asylum, and it was only 8:00 p.m."
"As the parent in charge of nine teenagers—nine—he had huge responsibilities."
"Wait—earplugs! Ella often complained that he snored—he didn’t—but she kept earplugs in her bedside table."
"Despite the large number of illicit cannabis plants grown in his old dorm room, Felix didn’t know much about dope."
"He just needed help coming down from the ledge so he could function for another two and a half hours."
"His heart raced in one direction and his mind in another, galloping through a reel of nightmares that looped from one imagined catastrophe to the next."
"Your headache has suddenly become quite debilitating."
"Part of me understood that rage, Harry. I have blind anger."
"I wanted to fall in love with the perfect woman."
"Falling in love for the first time is a rite of passage."
"When family shit happens, people like us hire domestic help, caregivers, whatever the fuck you call them."
"This conversation is pointless. Need I remind you that if we were a bigger company, I would be quoting the family and medical leave act and taking twelve weeks of unpaid leave?"
"Piss off," Felix said. "Otherwise, my next call is to Eudora."
"Do I love your mother? Yes. With all my heart."
"It's certainly helped us cover your exorbitant medical expenses."
"I was passionate about her. I was obsessed with her, and I made a choice."
"You're not going to crash and kill both of us, are you?"
"If someone told you you couldn’t visit Mom, would you listen?"
"I would have nothing left but my reputation, which Robert was more than capable of shredding out of spite."
"I'm not planning on going anywhere. I'm young, I'm in good shape. You heard the doc—I'm healthy. Apart from the defective heart."
"What’s your gut telling you about this? You must understand, Dad. What kind of a person would I be if I didn’t want to go see her?"
"We haven’t done a good job of keeping up with each other’s lives, have we?"
"You are not to talk about your mother that way. Do you hear me? She’s going to recover; she’s going to get better. These things just take time."
"Art always calmed Felix. Or rather, paintings with blocks of neat, contained color did."
"Distractions were so inconsiderate to drivers."
"Thank God for Ritalin, because if there had been no hope of sharpening Harry’s focus, Felix would have lost his mind."
"How’s your love life? Good. Yours? Complicated."
"In my world, one doesn’t discuss mental health. One pretends life is lovely and suffers silently."
"How hard have you tried? That’s not fair. I’ve put my life on hold for you and your mother."
"I can take care of myself! Really? You can’t even find your shoes half the time."
"The future—your future—is out there waiting. You need to start looking at colleges, and you need to start making decisions."
"Mistakes are human. Learn from them, but leave regret where it belongs—in the past. It’s the future we need to pay heed to."
"If you’re too busy worrying about what might be, you forget to enjoy what you have."
"Just because something’s always been one way doesn’t mean it has to stay that way."
"Life isn’t perfect, and people sure as heck aren’t. We’re broken and messy and a hornet’s nest of contradictions."
"Seems to me you always have a mind to focus on finding fault, not celebration."
"Behavioral contagion, Harry. Remember the mantra: this is not my stress."
"My experience is that people normally speak the truth when they’re angry."
"I need to focus on Harry’s future; more specifically, I need to arrange a trip to Harvard. Harvard was the key to Harry’s future, just as Oxford had been the key to his."
"I’m making an exception for this kid because his mother is critically ill."
"You and Dad need to cut me out of the equation. Handle this yourselves."
"Maybe all the cucumber slices soaked in gin kept her healthy."
"I’m glad you requested the ambulance bring her here."
"Anything can be the enemy: too much salt; an infection; emotional stress."
"Waiting can be a difficult, frustrating time."
"Life is peachy even if you’re as weird as me."
"Your grandfather whipped me. With a riding crop he kept in the bottom drawer of his desk."
"I wouldn’t have survived my childhood without your uncle."
"I’m not ready to let him go, to let the world dig its claws in."
"Forty-eight percent of women don’t survive their first heart attack."
"Marriages are full of secrets. Not ours. Not any longer."
"Giving up my Saturday evening for true love."
"Touching Sammie meant anchoring himself in pure happiness."
"If humans were meant to fly, they’d have wings, right?"
"What did he feel? Harry concentrated. Freezing."
"I promise if anything goes wrong, even the slightest hiccup, I’ll call home."
"A sense of righteousness about the way things ‘should be done.’"
"He was not losing his family; he was not losing Harry."
"He would do whatever it took to be a good father—not a perfect father, but the best he could be."
"Just dozed off, but I’m timing him. If he’s not awake in another ten minutes, I get to slap life back into him."