Please Ignore Vera Dietz Quotes
"The more I work, the more he follows me. The more he follows me, the more he nags me to clear his name. The more he nags me, the more I hate him for leaving me with this mess. Or for leaving me, period."
"It’s not like I can ask Dad about it. I bet if I did, he’d suggest meditation or come out with some Zen koan to counteract it."
"What’s not to love about that? As far as I’m concerned, Mom must be an idiot."
"If we’re supposed to ignore everything that’s wrong with our lives, then I can’t see how we’ll ever make things right."
"I wish Mrs. Kahn is okay. Dad said, 'She’s fine, Vera.' But she didn’t look fine, did she?"
"I don’t know what else to say, so I got up slowly and tried to get my balance. 'But what do you think?' he asked."
"But where’s the line? At what point does avoiding your destiny become the same thing as denying your destiny?"
"Most of the family eats quickly and goes back to watching football on TV. I look at my watch and decide to save myself from any more unsaid criticism."
"Since I developed this idea, I sometimes joke with him when I eat things. I say, 'Charlie, if you’re part of this Big Mac, I’m really sorry.'"
"True love includes equal parts good and bad, but true love sticks around and doesn’t run off to Vegas with a podiatrist."
"I’d rather go out with a guy who’s facing his shit than a guy who’s running from his shit."
"Being twenty-three makes James even more attractive to me. If you think about it, it’s only five years."
"Humans just couldn’t love unconditionally like animals could. Humans were too complicated."
"The more I thought about it, the more I realized that Charlie had been without underwear a lot over the last few years."
"The older I got, the more I realized that my happy-Mom memories were often fabrications invented to make me feel better about her being chronically unhappy."
"I am lying flat on the forest floor. There are bugs. I feel wet. I smell gas."
"It's a false, Hallmark holiday. A sham. A moneymaking sideshow for insecure couples who didn't have true love."
"I'm giving you one minute to pick those up, Mr. Corso. After that, you're out and facing possible suspension."
"HOW MANY CARES ONE LOSES WHEN ONE DECIDES NOT TO BE SOMETHING BUT SOMEONE."
"I won't be eighteen until October. Anyway, I want to work at Zimmerman's this summer, now that I'm old enough."
"You have to learn how to give a shit about yourself, Vera. You're eighteen."
"I’m sorry your friend died, Veer, but you have to find a time to move on and stop torturing yourself."
"I should have taken you to a meeting with me to see what it’s like. So that you’d understand your responsibility."
"Fundamentally, the marksman aims at himself."
"You're scared to open your suitcases and see what your mother packed."
"But quitting drinking is only what it is: quitting drinking."
"Charlie hid something in the tree, not the tree house."
"Which Zen guy said, 'What is the sound of one hand clapping?' That’s how I feel without Charlie. Like one hand clapping."
"I love Vocab. It’s like spelunking in a cave you’ve been in your whole life and discovering a thousand new tunnels."
"I’m thinking about how regret begets regret begets regret, and about the cycle I’ve just broken."
"It’s like we were both living inside a lie and now we’re free. Isn’t it funny how we live inside the lies we believe?"
"We will learn to forgive ourselves in tandem."