Quotes from Never Smile at Strangers

Jennifer Jaynes ·  310 pages

Rating: (6.5K votes)


“You don't need to talk to someone to know them. All you need to do is watch. See how they carry themselves. See how they treat others.”
― Jennifer Jaynes, quote from Never Smile at Strangers


“...It's better to feel the world around you. People let themselves become too desensitized. How can you write if you don't feel anything?”
― Jennifer Jaynes, quote from Never Smile at Strangers


“My mother always said that love is an entanglement. If you get too tangled, you lose yourself. It’s just a distraction. A way of escaping into someone else because you think that’ll be what finally makes you happy. Like a drug.”
― Jennifer Jaynes, quote from Never Smile at Strangers


“Moments later, the cowbells clattered, and Rachel Anderson, the creative-writing teacher from the community college, walked in. Rachel, wearing a floor-skimming lavender skirt, her long, blond hair pulled into a neat French braid, scanned the diner. Settling her sunglasses on the top of her head, she went to the counter and politely addressed the group.”
― Jennifer Jaynes, quote from Never Smile at Strangers


“Rachel was nowhere in sight. She was the one who comforted him with her warm smile and silent laughter. He could tell that she loved her family. She was the mother bird of the nest, the nurturer.”
― Jennifer Jaynes, quote from Never Smile at Strangers



“He was sure that people liked him because of the person he pretended to be.”
― Jennifer Jaynes, quote from Never Smile at Strangers


“We’re having such a hard time, Daddy,” she told him. “Everyone’s so miserable without you. I just want so badly for things to go back to the way they were.”
― Jennifer Jaynes, quote from Never Smile at Strangers


“You don’t need to talk to someone to know them. All you need to do is watch.”
― Jennifer Jaynes, quote from Never Smile at Strangers


“be. It just didn’t make sense. She thought about Haley. The rumble of an eighteen-wheeler grew closer, and she opened her eyes. The rig pulled”
― Jennifer Jaynes, quote from Never Smile at Strangers


“OPENING THE DOOR to her mother’s bedroom, Haley was stunned to see that her mother was awake. Crisp, dog-eared black-and-white photos and hundreds of newer color photographs were scattered all over the bed and floor. An empty scrapbook lay on her mother’s bureau next to a box of tissues.”
― Jennifer Jaynes, quote from Never Smile at Strangers



“Allie was so fragrant, just like an oleander, its beautiful pink blossoms disguising its fatal venom. Like the flower, she was poison. Most women were—except for Rachel Anderson, of course . . . and very few others.”
― Jennifer Jaynes, quote from Never Smile at Strangers


“Months of built-up hurt and frustration needed unleashing.”
― Jennifer Jaynes, quote from Never Smile at Strangers


“She’d shed tears until there were none left.”
― Jennifer Jaynes, quote from Never Smile at Strangers


“ballerina lay toppled over on her vanity table. A can of hairspray lay on its side on top of her bed, and clothes were strewn all over the carpet. The room smelled moldy. Wondering if there was a wet towel in Kelsey’s closet, Rachel walked across the room and opened the door. “What are you doing in here?”
― Jennifer Jaynes, quote from Never Smile at Strangers


“Lying was what kept him safe, alive, and relatively sane when he was little and”
― Jennifer Jaynes, quote from Never Smile at Strangers



“The asphalt was agonizing but also therapeutic in a way. A Southern antidepressant.”
― Jennifer Jaynes, quote from Never Smile at Strangers


About the author

Jennifer Jaynes
Born place: in Minot
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