The Breakaway Quotes
"It felt like floating. It felt like flying. It felt like she was far away from everything that hurt her."
"You’re not here to win a spot on the Olympic team or qualify for the Tour de France. Don’t worry about going as fast as you can."
"Are you ready?" She wasn’t. But she knew she had to try."
I’m not really an experienced cyclist," Lily was saying, "but I’ll do my best to keep up.
"I also love you because you talk to my mother so I don’t have to."
No worries," said Abby. "And that reminds me to remind all of you that this is a vacation, not a race.
"I’m too old for this," she thought as Marissa led them down a trash can–lined alley.
"She was riding, on a bike that could take her anywhere. She was free."
"I believe in you," Lizzie said, looking deeply into Abby’s eyes.
"No, you can’t just follow me. You need to learn to read a map. It’s an important life skill!" - Kayla to Ezra
"I’ll be riding sweep, which means I’ll be bringing up the rear. Any kind of trouble—wrong turn, flat tire, existential malaise—pull off to the side and wait for me." - Abby
"You want to look good in the pictures, don’t you?" - Eileen to Abby
"I’m sixty-three... my mother was sixty-three when she died." - Eileen
"I’m not saying I was ghosted, or gaslit, or love-bombed, or in any way traumatized. No single ladies were harmed in the making of this video." - MissAlyssy
"You didn’t fall on purpose, did you?" - Jasper to Lily
"Have you done any training, at all?" - Abby to Eileen
"This was a mistake." - Lily, after falling off her bike
"It’s just like riding a bike." - Eileen to Abby
"I’m not planning on having children anytime soon." - Abby to Eileen
"I thought it would be nice for Morgan and I to have some time together, but she’s barely spoken to me since we got in the car." - Lily
"It kind of made me wonder how many more of us there are out there." - MissAlyssy on Sebastian
"I did it!" - Lily, after a challenging bike ride
"You probably don’t remember. But my mother was sixty-three when she died." - Eileen to Abby
"I’m a delightful surprise." - Eileen to Abby
"I can say. Me, and Dr. Kravitz, who put my IUD in last year." - Abby to Eileen
"I’m not here to cause you any trouble." - Eileen to Abby
"I know you don’t think that I made the best decisions... everything I did was because I wanted the best for you." - Eileen to Abby
"I think they’re just boys." - Leah, discussing body types at Camp Golden Hills
"I’m sure I’ll be fine." - Lily, before a challenging bike ride
"She broke up with Mark over the phone. He took the news well, sounding sad, but not surprised."
"She’d lost her virginity the summer before college, in her bedroom in her dad’s house, when her father was busy teaching an adult bar mitzvah class."
"Her longest relationship after college and before Mark had lasted just six months."
"I can be free," she said, her voice still a little breathy. "Want to get coffee?"
"Her bliss ended as soon as she’d unlocked the door."
Abby’s mother had hosted them for Chanukah that December. "You remember Mark," Abby had said sweetly, knowing there was absolutely no chance her mother would recognize her formerly larger boyfriend.
"Do you think you and Mark will get married?" Izzie asked. Izzie and Howard were both doctors, who’d been married for two years.
"Abby could certainly imagine it happening. She was happy with Mark. But, somehow, she wasn’t in a hurry to bring that day closer."
"They discovered a mutual passion for putting puzzles together, for taking long walks to different neighborhoods, and they binge-watched all six seasons of The Americans and all seven seasons of Mad Men."
"Everyone complains about the weather, and nobody does anything about it."
"Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less."
"Other people’s opinion of you are none of your business."
"Everyone’s living happily ever after, huh?"
"Just that I’m probably going to have to move someplace far away, if I ever want to date, again."
"The best things about [Philadelphia] are good restaurants. Lots of places to ride your bike."
"You should keep that in mind. You know, just in case you ever meet someone you decide you want to be in a relationship with."
"I doubt that she’s doing it just to be nice."
"Nobody told you how to behave in a situation like this."
"It’s all going to be okay. They’ll take care of you."
"Most women pass the pregnancy within four or five hours after taking the misoprostol."
"We’ll take care of her. We’ll make sure she’s okay."
"When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied..."
"I want to go anywhere you want to go. I want you to be whoever you want to be."
"I think all of those beliefs and values go right out the window when it’s your own child."
"I think, in the end, every mother wants what’s best for her kids."
"We have trespassed, We have betrayed, We have stolen, We have slandered, We have caused others to sin"
"We have turned away, We have ignored our responsibilities, We have been perverse, We have acted wantonly"
"We have caused suffering, We have been stubborn, We have refused to see Hashem’s hand, We have rebelled, We have incited, We have sinned, We have strayed"
"I guess we’ll always have Camp Golden Hills."
"If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it’s yours. If it doesn’t, it never was."
"I didn’t tell you. I was ashamed, I guess. And I was trying to help you."
"You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s nothing you did. It’s me."
"You’re a beautiful young woman. You deserve to have choices."
"Your father was dead set against it. Back then, it was much newer, and a lot riskier. ‘There are side effects,’ he told me. ‘You could die.’"
"I remember once I had a stomach bug. I couldn’t eat for a week. I was throwing up constantly. And when I finally got sick enough to go see a doctor... they congratulated you."
"Did it ever occur to you that maybe you weren’t the one with the problem? That maybe it was the world’s problem, not yours?"
"I’m not going to change the world," she said. "Maybe I should have tried. Probably that would have been the better thing to do. The braver thing."
"I got the surgery. I told your father that I wanted to be healthy, so I could be around for you, and him, a long, long time."
"I didn’t tell you because I thought if I was careful when you were little, if I made sure you never gained weight in the first place, then you wouldn’t end up… Lonely."
"I only ever wanted things to be easy for you."
"What about you?" she said. "Did you marry dad because you didn’t have choices? Because no one else wanted you?"
"But everything I did, right or wrong, I did because I love you."
"Life hurts. It’s full of heartache, loss, and disappointment, and even the best things come salted with sorrow."
"You can’t leave yourself open to the good things—happiness, true love, real connection—if you aren’t willing to risk being hurt."
"I wanted you to be happy. I wanted you to have choices."
"People are going to laugh at me," Hannah said. "I’m not going to laugh at you," Abby said.
"Girls like me do not belong with guys like you."