Breathless Quotes
"It’s funny how the bad things stay with you and the good things sometimes get lost."
"But what you need to remember is that it has nothing to do with you. Your dad and I love you more than anything."
"I love you more than Kraft mac and cheese and Zelda Fitzgerald and spring."
"You can’t explain things like almostness to a guy like Shane."
"What I mean to say is, yesterday we were normal. We ate thumbprint cookies and rode in companionable silence and drove faster than anyone on the road."
"Why are we so mean to ourselves? Why aren’t we happy with what we have?"
"The whole world kind of tilts, and for one peaceful, terrifying second, everything goes black."
"I feel like a person being held against her will, like a hostage or a kidnap victim."
"It will not be the three of us anymore. It will never be the three of us anymore. From now on, it will be: Claude. Lauren. Neil. Every person for themselves."
"Inside, I’m hit with a blast of air-conditioning, which I wish I could drink."
"I suddenly feel this punch of homesickness, right in the throat."
"The refrigerator and cabinets are stocked with juice and milk and cereal and fruit."
"Don’t lose today. We’re going to make this an adventure, Claude."
"My earliest memory is of my parents and me standing on a beach, feet in the water, holding hands."
"Your dad once told me I was the second-prettiest girl in the room, and I was so flattered."
"We sit watching as he helps my mom, as they talk and laugh, as he scratches Dandelion under the chin."
"You look beautiful. It’s now my job to say these things, and to buy her honeysuckle perfume."
"All I know is, I don’t feel so strong right now."
"In that moment, I wonder if he’s going to kiss me again."
"I slip off my shoes and close the front door so, so carefully."
"I stand perfectly still, but I can feel the storm brewing inside me."
"I fold my arms to keep it there, in my chest, in my lungs."
"So let’s set some ground rules. Back by one a.m., no later."
"I won’t be losing anything. Or giving anything up."
"I think, 'He’ll be right at home in California.'"
"I’ve never done that with anyone other than Saz."
"I think about the future being fluid like this ocean."
"I close my eyes and feel the warm breeze on my face and arms."
"I’m filled with this feeling of apart but together."
"I think about making up a story, something elaborate and erotic."
"I try not to concentrate on the blanket and the image I have of Miah laying me down on it."
"I can’t help but sneak peeks at him, lean and gold, wet skin glimmering in the moonlight."
"I think about how six days ago I didn’t know he could do a handstand and kiss me like no one else."
"I sit down at the desk and write—not about Claudine, but about Tillie Blackwood."
"I lean back in my chair and stare at the moon, my eyes heavy."
"Sometimes you do things just to make it worse."
"You have to feel it. You have to feel it even if you think it’s going to kill you."
"I know I’m going to see you soon and we can talk more then, but there are some things I need you to know right now."
"You have to trust me on this because I’m a lot older than you and I know things."
"I’m your mother. I’ve known you all your life. And you need to talk to me, no matter what."
"We can’t just go to Joy Ann like normal, like all of this didn’t happen. Like all of this isn’t happening."
"It’s okay to still be a child to your parents. No matter how grown-up you get."
"You have to feel it to get to the other side."
"You can’t use sex or kissing or anything to erase shit."
"More than shark teeth and loggerhead turtles and blood moons."
"My parents are selling our house. Which means my green room will be someone else's green room, until they paint it some other color."
"You know, you’re not the same Claude Henry who lived on Capri Lane in a green room with a canopy bed."
"It’s what you say to your best friend when you don’t know what else to say, and all you want to do is be there for them."
"This was my mom’s office, with the floor-to-ceiling bookcases my dad built one weekend."
"I love you more than bike riding and Rosecroft at dusk and words. I love you more than words."
"I'm going to miss you. Something awful. But I'll be coming to New York to see you."
"We were supposed to have more time. We’re always supposed to have more time."
"I feel taller. Older. Good and right in my own skin. But still like myself. Claude Before and After."