Every Last One Quotes
"But it is the only time I can rest without sleeping, think without deciding, speak and hear my own voice. It is the only time I can be alone."
"Our bedroom is at the end of the hall, and sometimes as I pass I can hear the children breathing, each of them at rest as specific as they are awake."
"It should be easy for her to slip from beneath the blanket and make her bed, but she never bothers unless I hector her."
"I sit downstairs with coffee and the paper, staring out the window as my mind whirrs."
"He is not tidy, but he knows where everything is."
"Laundry is my life, and meals, and school meetings and games and recitals."
"Somehow Ruby emerges every morning from the disorder of her room looking beautiful and distinctive."
"That's the humbling thing about doing what I do for a living: You can look at the pin oak in a front yard, and know that long after you are gone there will be shade, and color, and you won't be there to see it."
"I feel as if I'm watching my life. I feel as if I'm not in my life."
"Rachel's mascara was a dirty shadow beneath her eyes, and I heard Sarah say 'That is so not acceptable' several times in a peremptory tone much like her mother's."
"Ruby's glossy head was bent over Ginger, who had been given special dispensation to leave her kennel in the middle of the night."
"Our children still find it astonishing that my father died and no one went to a therapist."
"The grass is cold and wet on my bare feet. I fold my arms over my chest, conscious of the fact that I am wearing only my nightclothes."
"I pat him on the shoulder. His face is all puckers, the way it was when he was little and he'd skin a knee."
"He sobs into his hands. His emotions are adult, his behavior childish."
"You tell her this is a mistake. A big mistake."
"I remember when I first saw his little moon face, when the Donahues moved in next door to us."
"I'm always worried about Rachel," Ruby says absently.
"Our lives, so settled, so specific, are built on happenstance."
"I've actually finally begun to think of this as home, now that I live with a houseful of American citizens."
"All normal activity gives me hope: eating, sleeping, speaking."
"I can't believe we haven't heard any complaints from my son."
"I picture having to go to the emergency room half-looped, or having the sitter smell something on my breath."
"Your guys are wonderful. They're so grown-up."
"He's discovered someone more interesting than you."
"Ben says he seems sad sometimes. He says sometimes Alex starts to talk about Max, and then stops, as though he still doesn't know how to do it, or what to say."
"I wish he could. And if he actually took the time to go on his own to see this man and ask to work with him, I think that's all to the good."
"As though she can hear my thoughts, Olivia replies, in a soft voice, 'I'm sure sometimes it seems easier, or at least simpler, not to talk about it.'"
"But they're boys. They don't pour their hearts out, do they?"
"I nod and stand, walk down the hill, and get my purse and keys."
"It's been a while since she asked my advice about Liam, and I miss it."
"I have nothing on my plate. I've just spent an hour doing--what were those things you told me about in church, where you walked around and looked at those plaques of Jesus making it up the hill?"
"The only one I can remember is when Veronica wipes his face."
"I fall silent. What else did I warn Alice about? Improperly fastened car seats? Little plastic toy pieces?"
"My phone rings. It's Alice. 'Hey, honey,' she says softly."
"That's what I've learned. It's fine. Whatever you manage to do."
"They were always sure we knew what the others' dreams meant, but we could never parse our own."
"I had a dream then, the first dream I'd had in all that time."
"I wish Glen were here to tell me what to do."
"I think every fear you ever have, every one--they're all fear of dying."