Friends And Strangers Quotes
"Nobody up at this hour besides mothers and insomniacs."
"Exhaustion giving way to acceptance, devotion, as she held the warm heft of him in her arms."
"Every time I nurse my child, I drink a glass of water. In this way, I remember that I too deserve care."
"The secrets they divulged to one another amazed her."
"They were learning an evolving language, one you spoke for a week or two before everything changed again."
"Stop overthinking it. Multivariate regression analysis on the impact of that Oreo is a dangerous path."
"Her eyes opened. She woke up. This was how Elisabeth could be certain she had slept."
"In the hours before he woke again, she lay in bed unable to sleep."
"The baby drank himself drunk and closed his eyes, his head an anchor seeking the bottom."
"Hosting was supposed to be a big deal, but Sam hadn’t given it a moment’s thought."
"You simply cannot bring a six-foot-five British man into the dining hall without raising eyebrows."
"Isabella was selling her eggs to a couple who had advertised in the student paper."
"I’m not rich, my parents are," Isabella often said, which made no sense.
"This isn’t only about the money. I’m doing it to give back."
"Their friendship was built on a foundation of mutual acceptance."
"Even when you and Clive are married and raising five kids in England and I’m the mistress of some corporate tycoon in Dubai?"
"She wished she had reached that place in life, when the reaction could be what they showed in the commercials: a happy couple jumping up and down."
"It was like with Gil. When she was babysitting, Sam only ever wanted to get him down for a nap so she could do schoolwork or watch TV. But as soon as he was asleep, she had the urge to wake him, craving his company."
"Sam loved to wash her hands in Elisabeth’s downstairs powder room, with the soft white towels and the wallpaper covered in oversize green leaves."
"Sam felt like a slightly better version of herself each time she used it."
"Sam pretended the house was hers, and the baby too."
"Her palms hadn’t stopped sweating since Tuesday. Her stomach was a mess."
"I’ve got my second wind. Let’s take that walk you promised me."
"The solitude will give you more time to paint," her mother said, and it was true.
"Sam spent long hours in the studio. She sometimes went on a Saturday night, when she knew she’d have the place to herself."
"Sam tried not to think about leaving. The idea of it seemed impossible."
"Sam could easily picture a whole, happy life with him in those moments."
"Sam felt like she belonged somewhere that Isabella didn’t even know existed."
"Sam loved him. She did. But sometimes she could project herself into the future, see herself married to someone more appropriate."
"Sam sometimes sensed a sadness in Gaby too, which Gaby never talked about, but it came through when she mentioned that a lot of her friends had bailed when she had a kid."
"Sam had always been careful not to complain. She had only had to climb out of bed, wash her face, and stumble downstairs to get to work."
"Sam's life had been going in a certain direction. But she saw now that it didn’t have to stay that way."
"No one in her life, with the exception of the baby, would be able to stand her if they knew what she was thinking."
"She always picks some serious book that the rest of us skipped in high school."
"If only all parents were sophisticated enough to choose a name like Debbie."
"He was probably loving having time alone to watch sports or porn or videos of golden retrievers jumping into swimming pools."
"The big secret of adulthood is that you never feel settled."
"High school never ended. It just took on different shapes, new casts of characters."
"A robust passion that could give an open-eyed account of itself, and not a beautiful madness shrinking away from the proof."
"I don’t even know what that word means anymore. They use it to sell soap now."
"That was the sound of people enjoying themselves, Andrew. Sorry if it offended you."
"The thing about choosing not to was that the door closed eventually. The thing about choosing to was that the door would never close."
"How many choices had she made in her life to avoid having regrets later on?"
"The love was an astonishment. Every time she looked at him, she felt a shock of wonder at how close she had come to never knowing it."
"She couldn’t stop thinking about Isabella. She had to find a way to talk her out of it."
"Why wouldn’t they adopt? We would adopt if it ever came to that."
"You’re thirty-five, not twenty-five," he reminded her three times in ten minutes, as if she might have forgotten.
"As much as they collectively knew about how hard it is to be human, they must also know something deeper about how special it is, how beautiful."
"Elisabeth could usually count on herself to have the wrong reaction to major life events, so she was grateful for the bliss she felt and the knowledge that, for once, she had gotten what she wanted, and it was better than she dreamed."
"A child shouldn’t be so aware of her mother’s demons. A child shouldn’t know her mother has demons at all."
"What did you owe the person who made such sacrifices on your behalf, sacrifices you would never remember?"
"The bond between parent and child was all-consuming, yet its power was not cumulative."
"Times that are supposed to be about family bonding or celebrations are hard for me."
"I wish I loved anything half as much as those people loved Jimmy Buffett."
"No one feels sorry for a rich girl with terrible parents."
"It’s like having someone switch on the lights at an orgy."
"Old traditions must give way if new ones are to blossom."
"It was like the way someone might ask a child what he planned to be for Halloween because it was October and then, in December, ask what he wanted for Christmas."
"Sam had cried, flipping through. Each picture of her former life was like a dead butterfly, wings pinned to the page."
"It amazes me that you can go somewhere new and a whole life will grow up around you."
"It would have been so much better if somebody made a joke!"
"Soon I’ll have a job, and adult responsibilities. I feel like I have to savor my freedom, since I know it can’t last."
"It was as if all her friends had aged fifty years and only she remained young."
"Sam had witnessed two women in Eileen Fisher, fighting over who got the single on the fourth floor that both of them had once occupied."
"Sam wondered about this sometimes. She wondered if and when Josie would ask about him, and what Gaby would say."
"That poor girl shouldn’t have had to raise that money in the first place."
"Middle-class overachievers in a sea of rich kids."
"But it never hurts to be born on third base."
"Wealth wasn't only about money, but opportunity."
"I’ve decided life’s too short for music that’s just okay."
"The children of baby boomers will inherit more wealth than any previous generation."
"The economic climate you graduate into defines so much about your prospects."
"The fact is we’re not as in control of our personal destinies as we imagine ourselves to be."
"Sam handed George a muffin. 'Fresh from the oven,' she said."
"You’re the best girl in the world. I love you."
"Soon, for the rest of my life, when I get on an airplane, you’ll be sitting beside me, not waving me off."
"Keep your mouths shut about what goes on here, or get out."
"We don’t have the luxury of crying about what’s fair and what isn’t. We’re not like you."
"Don’t say love. You just made her life ten times harder than it was to begin with."
"It’s what they’ve been doing all their life."
"That’s only because you don’t know anything yet."
"When Sam crossed the stage to get her diploma, her family cheered, louder than anyone else’s."
"No tears! This is a happy day. We’re so proud of you."
"Every year it seemed the country moved closer and closer to a place where there would soon be very rich people and very poor people, and very few in between."
"You hadn’t heard? I was positive it must be the talk of the neighborhood."
"It’s overwhelming if I think about it too much."
"I’m so happy to answer them and feel like I know something for once."
"I wouldn’t say that. I felt offended, even though it was true."
"Life would be so much better if they lived closer."