The Choice Quotes
"Stories are as unique as the people who tell them, and the best stories are those in which the ending is a surprise."
"It’s sometimes hard for me to write acknowledgments for the simple reason that my life as an author has been blessed with a kind of professional stability."
"Change was one of the inevitable laws of nature, exacting its toll on people’s lives."
"Happiness seemed as distant and unattainable to him as space travel."
"Mistakes are made, regrets form, and all that was left were repercussions that made something as simple as rising from the bed seem almost laborious."
"I’ve had the same literary agent and editor since I began writing."
"It’s been a whirlwind since the beginning, and I can’t imagine experiencing any of it with anyone else."
"She puts the pencil to the manuscript in hopes of making it the best it can be."
"It’s easy to distinguish them, believe it or not. For Tina, think of Tina Louise from Gilligan’s Island. Ginger? The movie star? She has red hair, too."
"Traveling has less to do with seeing things than experiencing them."
"It takes courage to do something different, and maybe what you think is disappointment in you is actually, on some deeper level, disappointment in herself."
"I just inserted your 'amazingly personal experiences' into pretty much every woman who ever lived."
"He who does nothing is the one who does nothing."
"He’s a goof-off, and a worldly young man... but underneath, he’s really just a small-town boy like the rest of them."
"I don’t know. I guess it’s because... I just don’t see you as someone who grew up following all the rules."
"It’s human nature to be lazy. But it’s good to know I’m not the only one who understands that essential truth."
"You think you’ll marry your boyfriend, but can’t help but wonder why you don’t have a ring on your finger yet."
"That’s what traveling should be about. Meeting people, learning to not only appreciate a different culture, but really enjoy it like a local, following whatever impulse strikes you."
"If conversation was the lyrics, laughter was the music, making time spent together a melody that could be replayed over and over without getting stale."
"If you’re trying to flatter me, you’re not doing a very good job."
"Don’t blame me. I didn’t tell you to roll in dead fish, did I?"
"The more I get to know you, the more you surprise me. I like that."
"A man’s got to seize the moment. It’s kind of my motto."
"It’s my fault, not yours. I knew what I was getting into."
"The whole day struck him as a tantalizing dance, in which each of them had taken turns leading, one pushing, the other pulling, and vice versa."
"When I think back, I realize that the corollary to that was that anything exciting meant that much more to me. I never grew jaded, the way so many city kids do."
"Life, it seemed, was full of regret, and he yearned to turn back the clock so he could live parts of his life over again."
"But fate had conspired to ruin all that, and now he spent long portions of his days wondering whether it was humanly possible to fix things between them."
"In the darkness, he would toss and turn, wishing for someone else to make the choice for him."
"Sometimes it seemed that the only thing he was certain about was the knowledge that he wouldn’t trade his years with Gabby for anything."
"Marriage, each of them realized intuitively, was about compromise and forgiveness. It was about balance, where one person complemented the other."
"He was the most ordinary of men with only one exception: He’d fallen in love with a woman named Gabby, his love deepening in the years they’d been married."
"She was as remarkable to him as she had been the first time he’d ever seen her."
"He loved his wife but hated what life with her had become."
"He wanted what they had and knew they would never understand his loss, no matter how hard they tried."
"The fact that his daughters had plans for today was fortunate, since he needed to stay longer anyway."
"You’re everything I’ve ever wanted in a wife. You’re every hope and every dream I’ve ever had, and you’ve made me happier than any man could possibly be."
"There was always nothing, as if God were telling him that his love was somehow not enough."
"Please, you’ve got to wake up, sweetheart. Please? We’re running out of time."
"Living in Chapel Hill, she was the senior project manager at a rapidly growing biotechnology firm."
"Just eat these and I promise I’ll shut up and won’t bother you again."
"You’re just lucky you have me in your life. I’m quite the blessing for you."
"And when I know he’s really ready, that’s when I’ll say yes."
"You have to show them that no matter what horrible things happen in life, you still have to go on."