Rachel's Holiday Quotes
"When did you lose your sense of humor?" I asked, bewildered. "You’re as bad as Brigit."
"Break it off with me if you’re determined to, but don’t try and blame me."
"I struggled to deflect waves of shock and grief and pretend to Margaret and Paul that everything was fine."
"Being ditched by Luke caused me to rethink my entire life."
"It was one thing to lose my job, because I’d always get another one. But to lose a boyfriend..."
"I hated upsetting Margaret. Even though she was weird and saved money and hadn’t had sex until she got married, I was still very fond of her."
"A whole month, I thought, clenched by sudden fear."
"I would emerge cleansed, whole, renewed, reborn."
"As the plane took off from JFK, I settled back in my seat and I was surprised to find that I felt intense relief."
"Work in the hotel where I was an assistant manager had become harder and harder to do."
"Apparently Mum took the news that I was a drug addict very badly."
"The Cloisters cost a fortune. That’s why so many pop stars went there."
"It wasn’t the first time a man had ditched me for no obvious reason, but I hadn’t expected it from Luke Costello."
"How in the name of Jesus did I end up in this situation?"
"It’s not that bad," Celine said, as if she really believed it.
"Aren’t you lucky, then, that you’ve had such a worry-free life?" Celine said.
"My skin goose-pimpled every time I thought of the questionnaire being read aloud."
"I would have killed for a mood alterer. Anything."
"Sit down," Celine ordered, suddenly very firm.
"You didn’t make a very wise choice of boyfriend," Celine said.
"Maybe you just want to believe he is, so that you can discount any information he gives about your addiction."
"All she was good for was sticking thermometers up people’s butts!"
"I took a quick pause from hating Luke so that I could hate Neil instead."
"Trying to exude beauty and tragedy, I stood in the doorway."
"A questionnaire has arrived?" He quirked an eyebrow at me.
"Nothing but bad things ever seem to happen to me. Do you know what I mean?"
"Was he going to hit me? For a second that stretched on for hours my face rested in the cradle of his hand."
"Poor Rachel," he said, doing the other tear with his other thumb.
"I almost enjoyed myself. I didn’t mind making common cause with the others because I needed someone to talk to."
"Luke Costello couldn’t tell the truth about anything!"
"And it’s much colder in New York than it is here."
"But where’s that fucking Cuban Heel?" she added viciously.
"Rachel, Rachel." Doleful eyes. "Don’t you want a little Latin in you?"
"I straightened myself up, cleared my throat and tried to talk sense to him, but he was beyond hearing or seeing me."
"I contained the emptiness of all of creation in the area that was once my stomach."
"And they make you feel paranoid and you worry that they’re going to move in together and not tell you until the last minute."
"Being alive hurts, but you don’t use painkillers for that."
"I couldn’t afford to be scared," I said primly. "It had to be done and that was that."
"I knew I was too much of a coward to have any more dental interference in my mouth, that I’d rather take my chances with the toothache."
"You mean it’s not a novel?" I finally managed.
""It’s about . . . well . . . gardening. For, em, ahem, ballerinas."
"I only put up with him, and all the crap he talked, for my share of the drugs."
"I felt as if I would burst from the happiness of being with him."
"I’m not going to sit here and listen to this... kangaroo court condemn me."
"I was like that too, always thinking about it."
"I’m not happy at all. I don’t want to be this way."
"Your anger is perfectly normal... A last-ditch attempt to avoid facing the truth."
"I hated him, I hated me, I hated not being drunk."
"Jealousy had corroded a hole where my stomach used to be."
"I liked what he said and the way he’d said it, I felt taken care of."
"I was hardly aware of the journey into town. My blood was up, every atom in my body was screaming for chemicals."
"The terrible problem is getting the fucking drugs!"
"You don’t lie there and plan that once you’ve done that you’re going to smile warmly."
"My view of my past also changed as my counselor demystified childhood situations."
"I watched him get down on one knee. And the crowd went wild!"
"Mourning the past, mourning the other life I might have lived if things had been different."