My Life Next Door Quotes
"Nice isn’t the point here, Samantha. You’re seven years old. You need to understand what’s important."
"The lullaby of my childhood was my mom running the vacuum cleaner, making perfectly symmetrical lines in our beige living room carpet."
"It was clear from the start that we were not to play with the Garretts."
"Outside my bedroom window, there’s a small flat section of the roof with a tiny fence around it. Not really a balcony, more like a ledge."
"Five years ago, Mom went into politics. We were proud of her. Of course we were."
"She’s watching the other kids, Mom. It’s what she’s supposed to do."
"My unsafe zone is twenty-two months. That’s when they suddenly aren’t babies anymore. I love babies so much."
"Watching a silent movie, one so different from the life I lived."
"As usual, most of the lights are on at the Garretts'."
"We just show what’s there. The softer side of Grace."
"But that never happens because astronauts are really, really careful."
"I’ll miss you," I say as she whips dresses off hangers, shoving them helter-skelter into a suitcase.
"I don’t need to be accountable to colleges anymore. I’m in at Middlebury. I don’t need to prove a thing."
"I’m supposed to tell you she’s busy all day," I admit. My sister: master of playing hard to get.
"I’m glad you came over," Jase says when we reach the end of the driveway. "Sorry again about George."
"You’re as beautiful as your mother," he says to me, "so now I believe it."
"You might want to think about that. Or at least be really careful about the bedtime reading."
"Then there are the two days of lifeguarding." A little crease crimps her forehead.
"It’s when you say things like that that I remember how very young you are."
"This election won’t be easy. It’s not like the first time I ran."
"Mom always said that bitterly—'Your father had charm'—as though charm were some illicit substance he’d used on her."
"You and Tracy…She’s off to college in the fall. That’ll be you in another year."
"I don’t want you to be the only things that ever happen to me."
"I’ve been working without a map since you both were born."
"She stands there, her expression dreamy, she seems like a woman—not my mother."
"The whole happy-family-Mr.-Nice-Guy bit could be a cover."
"As women, as parents, we all know family comes first."
"When I was elected to be your state senator, I kept my focus. My family just got a lot bigger."
"To me my constituents are my family. I will be honored to sit at your table."
"I just didn’t…I never felt with her the way I feel whenever I even catch sight of you."
"It’s all about manipulating things—and people."
"When you’re working on behalf of the people, you don’t have regular hours."
"You’re walking along on this path, dazzled by how perfect it is, how great you feel, and then just a few forks in the road and you are lost in a place so bad you never could have imagined it."
"No one has ever been this impressed with me."
"It’s not the moral dilemma of the century. It’s just whether you’re going to do a decent thing or keep doing shitty things."
"Guilt. Didn’t work for Lady Macbeth, did it?"
"That friggin’ mouse is never satisfied. You give him one thing, he wants something else, and then he asks for more and on and on and on."
"I heard them talking…they said only for a few months, they were both healthy, young enough, nothing pre-existing…it wasn’t a big deal."
"What I’m imagining is true cannot possibly, cannot possibly, be the truth."
"He’s stable. They did an emergency procedure—drilled something called a burr hole to relieve pressure in his skull."
"It’s a good thing, right? I should be glad. I’ve always been glad before, but…"
"We have here is a situation. Something’s happened, and we need to deal with it."
"We’re the only three people in the whole world who know about this."
"Most hit-and-run drivers are never identified."
"What’s done is done and we’re all going to move on."
"Your mama’s always telling me how smart you are."
"You wouldn’t be the privileged princess in her perfect world anymore."
"You have to give me a chance to fix whatever it is I’ve done."
"I wasn’t sure what she was going to be. Or do. But I’ve got to tell her."
"Right. I forgot that you had no problem betraying your mom."
"There’s no point. The Garretts will hear and they’ll do what they’ll do and there’s nothing to be done about it."
"Have a little faith. I’ve been in this game a while."
"With all due respect, son, everyone’s feelings are a marketing tool. That’s what marketing is all about—hitting people in the gut."
"It’s a killer moment, and at least fifty percent of the time, it makes you a shoo-in at election time."
"Everything you say makes sense, sir. I guess it’s logical. But with all due respect, you’re out of your fucking mind."
"It’d be good if you’d stop apologizing right about now."
"Only because I’d heard ’em all before. It took me weeks to see through the hypnotism."
"I’m guessing Mom won’t want me showing up for dinner at the B and T tonight. Or when I’ll be welcome at home."
"You’re more than welcome to come inside, Senator."
"Certain events in my family have convinced me that I must decline the honor of running for office once again."
"No good would come of getting to know those people next door."
"We walk out on the rocky path to the lighthouse."