Quotes from The Lonely Polygamist

Brady Udall ·  602 pages

Rating: (14.1K votes)


“...Families are Forever, and wondered if the slogan was meant as a promise or a threat.”
― Brady Udall, quote from The Lonely Polygamist


“For most affairs, this eventually becomes the most fundamental of questions, the only one that matters: Do we love each other more than the lives we already have? It is the question that hovers in the background of every secret phone call, flavors every tryst with the head of possibilities of apocalypse and renewal; and it is the answer to that question, or the lack thereof, that so often dooms an affair to failure.”
― Brady Udall, quote from The Lonely Polygamist


“When it comes to love, everyone is a liar.”
― Brady Udall, quote from The Lonely Polygamist


“She considered, maybe for the first time, how lucky she was to be able to pick up the phone and call her mother whenever she needed bad advice.”
― Brady Udall, quote from The Lonely Polygamist


“Because this, after all, was the basic truth they all chose to live by: that love was no finite commodity. That it was not subject to the cruel reckoning of addition and subtraction, that to give to one did not necessarily mean to take from another; that the heart, in its infinite capacity-even the confused and cheating heart of the man in front of her, even the paltry thing now clenched and faltering inside her own chest-could open itself to all who would enter, like a house with windows and doors thrown wide, like the heart of God itself, vast and accommodating and holy, a mansion of rooms without number, full of multitudes without end.”
― Brady Udall, quote from The Lonely Polygamist



“For Golden it was hard not to think that there might be something wrong about a household in which the dog was wearing underwear and the children weren't.”
― Brady Udall, quote from The Lonely Polygamist


“But Golden's dark form in the doorway had imprinted something new and painful on the hard plates of her chest: that old devil, hope. The kind of hope that abandons you in your worst moments and is suddenly there again, weeks later, trailing you like the stubborn, slinking dog who will not take no for an answer. The kind of greedy hope that tricks you into believing that at least some of the things taken from you might be restored, that after everything, you might find your way back to something like happiness.”
― Brady Udall, quote from The Lonely Polygamist


“. . . Golden would find himself thinking that if he ever became delusional or foolhardy enough to outfit one of his houses with a complaint box, it would need to be about the size of a refrigerator.”
― Brady Udall, quote from The Lonely Polygamist


“He knows that for all the undeserved bounty of his life, she will always be there, at the edge of his vision, to remind him of all the things he can never have.”
― Brady Udall, quote from The Lonely Polygamist


“Even in the midst of all this commotion she knows none of it really belongs to her, and marvels at the strange fact of her dearest wish: to be part of it, to give in to it's distractions, to find herself the owner of a life lived rather than a life endured. And then she looks into the face of Mother #3, worn smooth and almost featureless, with moist eyes that can't seem to settle on anything for more than a heartbeat at a time, and she knows this is a very dangerous wish.”
― Brady Udall, quote from The Lonely Polygamist



“When she's next to him, when she rests her hand on his, his whole body aches with something like knowledge for all he has lost, the chances he will never have, to return such a touch, to fall of a horse or eat chinese food or shoot a crossbow (which has always been one of his most dear wishes), to receive a letter in the mail, to be kissed with longing or punched in the jaw.”
― Brady Udall, quote from The Lonely Polygamist


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About the author

Brady Udall
Born place: St. Johns, Arizona, The United States
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Popular quotes

“Hope is a demon worse than your Pain.”
― Gena Showalter, quote from The Darkest Pleasure


“The price of order,” I muttered. I tried to run the dog off. It wouldn’t budge.
“The cost of chaos,” Tom-Tom countered. Thump on his drum. “Not quite the same thing, Croaker.”
― Glen Cook, quote from The Black Company


“Amy was looking around the sanctum in awe. "It's...beautiful!"
The girl was modest and thoughtful. How bizarre. So rarely did Ian see these qualities in others–especially during the quest for the 39 Clues. Naturally, he had been taught to avoid these behaviors at all costs and never to consort with anyone who possessed them. They were distasteful–FLO, as Papa would say. For Losers Only. And Kabras never lost.
Yet she fascinated him. Her joy in running up Alistair's tiny lawn, her awe at this piddling cubbyhole–it didn't seem possible to gain so much happiness from so little. This gave him a curious feeling he'd never quite experienced. Something like indigestion but quite a bit more pleasant.
Ah well. Blame it on the ripped trousers, he thought. Humiliation softened the soul.”
― Peter Lerangis, quote from The Sword Thief


“In the same way that your Emotional Set-Points can change from feeling basically good or secure to feeling bad or insecure, your set-points can change from not feeling good to feeling good, for your set-points are achieved simply by attention to a subject, and through your practiced thought.”
― Esther Hicks, quote from Ask and It Is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires


“Chuckling, Jason picked up the bucket of explosives.
Rachel felt the moment slipping away. There was so much she wanted to say. What if something happened to him? What if she never told him how much she appreciated his coming back to Lyrian for her? How much she cared about him? There were too many feelings to translate into words. "See you later," she managed.
"Not if I see you first," Jason said, starting toward the main doors of the temple.
She watched him walking away. Were those the last words he would say to her? She stalked after him. "You can't leave with a joke."
He glanced back. "Why not?"
"What if I die?"
"Then at least I cheered you up before the end."
"That wasn't a cheerful joke. It was a teasing joke. And not even a very good one."
"Fine. Why did the baby cross the road?"
"No jokes," Rachel complained, striding alongside him.
"I guess it's more fitting that we should end with an argument."
"I just mean there are certain times when jokes aren't appropriate."
"Which makes them more needed and funny.”
― Brandon Mull, quote from Chasing the Prophecy


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