The Island Quotes
"I have to call you back," Chess said in the tight voice that meant Birdie should have waited and called Chess at home.
"Okay, honey!" Birdie said. "But just put this in your stew pot: you and me in the house on Tuckernuck the week of Fourth of July."
"Let me think about it," Chess said, and she hung up.
"July first through seventh?" Chess said. "You and me?"
"Absolutely," Chess said. "It sounds great. Thanks, Bird!"
"It goes well," Birdie said. "I’m sure hearing from me is something of a shock."
"Chuck doesn’t do caretaking anymore," Eleanor said.
"I am done with phone calls," she said. "I am done with e-mails and done with texting."
"Chess may have been heartbroken, medicated, and shorn, but there was no way she was getting Barrett Lee."
"Tate couldn’t get enough of him—the deep tan of his back, the impossible sun-bleached lightness of his hair."
"Chess had the long, wavy, honey blond hair, she had magnificent breasts, she had college-level expertise about how to smile and chat guys up."
"Chess, on the other hand, was stick thin and flat chested."
"Chess’s confession: She could weight the pockets of her grandfather’s yellow rain slicker with rocks and walk out into the ocean."
"Birdie was the first one down onto the boat. Barrett reached out to shake her hand. 'Hey, Mrs. Cousins, good to see you.'"
"Chess was able to joke about it; that much was good. She was choosing to stay alive; that much was good."
"Tate loved summer in New England. It was so different from summer in Charlotte, where everyone moved from one air-conditioned venue to the next."
"I wanted to do things with Grant. I wanted to be his friend."
"The only thing he worships, as you and I know, is money."
"What was weird was that he had so little to take."
"Don’t you think I expected more from myself than that?"
"I won the women’s member-guest in 1990. A golf tournament. Golf, which I despise."
"He kissed me. His lips were warm, salty, tangy."
"The routine should not be complicated or stressful."
"Nothing on Tuckernuck was complicated or stressful; it was simple and boring."
"I don’t want to go back to how things were before I met him."
"I had always been alone, throughout my marriage, alone, alone."
"I’d forgotten how awful it was. I don’t remember feeling like this with your father."
"He was what I thought I’d always been looking for."
"I started a book group, the first of its kind in Fairfield County."
"Chess didn’t like anyone very much these days."
"Tate did her sit-ups from the tree branch in a haze of sickly green jealousy."
"She squeezed past India on the stairs when the customary thing to do was to wait at the bottom for the person coming down to descend."
"Barrett had been nothing but friendly and kind since she arrived."
"She had a terrific crush on Chuck Lee when I was a girl."
"Chess wasn’t trying. She looked like Telly Savalas, she was bald, for God’s sake, and yet Barrett was still attracted to her."
"I’m going to let you gals do what you went there to do. Bang your drums and chant and share your secrets by moonlight."
"I didn’t know you were in love with Barrett Lee."
"I wasn’t getting anything out of the marriage."
"I had a longtime girlfriend named Kimberly, but they were always breaking up and getting back together."
"I don’t remember feeling this addled. Loving your father was frustrating, but it wasn’t painful."
"I’ve loved him forever. I’ve loved him since I was a child."
"The Ellises had been friends of Hank and Caroline’s for decades."
"I’ll give you one thing, Barrett said. You’re resourceful."
"The Scout was a magic vehicle; it could deliver her to a different frame of mind."
"I’ll bring you back Sunday morning. Early, in time for you to run, I promise."
"He drank a lot and he was temperamental. Michael worried about him."
"They had been married to the man thirty years."
"No one can know, no one can know I’m doing it and no one can know it’s me when they see the paintings. You can imagine the imbroglio that would ensue?"
"The poor girl was dying for something—a scrap, a hint, some direction about what to do."
"Human emotions present themselves in any number of shocking ways."
"I thought of Nick every hour of every day. I dreamed about him."
"I could barely stand to watch the show, though the band was better than ever."
"It was an incredibly sensual experience to bare your body and let another person render you."
"To long for the impossible was counterproductive."
"Were men really so stupid and shallow? India supposed they were."
"Forgive herself. Reconcile this and move on. There was nothing harder."
"You party like a woman who just got divorced, not like one who’s about to get married."
"Chess cooked dinner. This was a huge step; only a month earlier she had sworn she would never cook again."
"Life is sad and difficult. We hurt the ones we love the most."
"I feel like I’m on vacation from my vacation."
"But people rarely hurt each other intentionally."
"It’s not what you have in your life, but who you have in your life that counts."
"He deserves so much more than what's befallen him."
"You can't change the past, but you can ruin the present by worrying about the future."
"Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn't know you left open."
"I’ll send Trey. He’s the kid who works for me now."