Quotes from Breathing Underwater

Alex Flinn ·  263 pages

Rating: (7.2K votes)


“Anyone else feel like that? Like your life's a big act. Like you're trying to be a man when you're just a scared kid, trying to keep under control when you really want to scream, cry, maybe hit someone. Ever feel like you're breathing underwater, and you have to stop because you're gulping in too much fluid?”
― Alex Flinn, quote from Breathing Underwater


“It's easier to fake it. When you fake it for sixteen years, it becomes part of you, something you don't think about.”
― Alex Flinn, quote from Breathing Underwater


“What happened December 12?” Polyester asks.

I look at the wall, my attention suddenly riveted by a palmetto bug, feelers writhing. I could kill it if I wanted.

He hit me.”

The bug slides to the floor.”
― Alex Flinn, quote from Breathing Underwater


“Funny how you can know something and yet not believe it's possible.”
― Alex Flinn, quote from Breathing Underwater


“I remember, now, how to cry.”
― Alex Flinn, quote from Breathing Underwater



“I can't go on like this”
― Alex Flinn, quote from Breathing Underwater


“We accept without question that we–human beings– are the center of the universe. Talk about hubris. But when a woman says, 'I love you', that won't go through our skulls.”
― Alex Flinn, quote from Breathing Underwater


“You can't respect yourself if you're letting someone beat you up–inside or out.”
― Alex Flinn, quote from Breathing Underwater


“It's about doing the right thing even if you don't want to do it. About taking responsibility for your actions...it's about letting go when you really, really want to hold on so bad.”
― Alex Flinn, quote from Breathing Underwater


“Somewhere down the road...I hope you find [that girls] don't all have the same thing between their ears. The good ones don't put up with macho mind games.”
― Alex Flinn, quote from Breathing Underwater



“Control is part of faking it”
― Alex Flinn, quote from Breathing Underwater


“And Caitlin smiled. I Wanted to put her smile in my pocket to look at over and over”
― Alex Flinn, quote from Breathing Underwater


“Having screwed around the last hour trying to decide whether to write in the style of Isaac Asimov (that version featured Caitlin as a Venusian chick with one eye and three breasts) or Dr. Seuss (“I am Nick/Nick is sick/Nick tells Debbie to…” well, you get the idea),”
― Alex Flinn, quote from Breathing Underwater


About the author

Alex Flinn
Born place: in Glen Cove, New York, The United States
Born date October 23, 2018
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“I was modest--they accused me of being crafty: I became secretive. I felt deeply good and evil--nobody caressed me, everybody offended me: I became rancorous. I was gloomy--other children were merry and talkative. I felt myself superior to them--but was considered inferior: I became envious. I was ready to love the whole world--none understood me: and I learned to hate.”
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“Every time I want to give up on him, there's always something inside telling me to just give it time.”
― Natasha Friend, quote from My Life in Black and White


“The mature response, however, is not to leave; it's to change -- ourselves.

Whenever marital dissatisfaction rears its head in my marriage -- as it does in virtually every marriage -- I simply check my focus. The times that I am happiest and most fulfilled in my marriage are the times when I am intent on drawing meaning and fulfillment from becoming a better husband rather than from demanding a "better" wife.

If you're a Christian, the reality is that, biblically speaking, you can't swap your spouse for someone else. But you can change yourself. And that change can bring the fulfillment that you mistakenly believe is found only by changing partners. In one sense, it's comical: Yes, we need a changed partner, but the partner that needs to change is not our spouse, it's us!

I don't know why this works. I don't know how you can be unsatisfied maritally, and then offer yourself to God to bring about change in your life and suddenly find yourself more satisfied with the same spouse. I don't why this works, only that it does work. It takes time, and by time I mean maybe years. But if your heart is driven by the desire to draw near to Jesus, you find joy by becoming like Jesus. You'll never find joy by doing something that offends Jesus -- such as instigating a divorce or an affair.”
― Gary L. Thomas, quote from Sacred Marriage: Celebrating Marriage as a Spiritual Discipline


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