Quotes from The Long Goodbye

Meghan O'Rourke ·  306 pages

Rating: (2.7K votes)


“Sometimes you don't even know what you want until you find out you can't have it.”
― Meghan O'Rourke, quote from The Long Goodbye


“Nothing prepared me for the loss of my mother. Even knowing that she would die did not prepare me. A mother, after all, is your entry into the world. She is the shell in which you divide and become a life. Waking up in a world without her is like waking up in a world without sky: unimaginable.”
― Meghan O'Rourke, quote from The Long Goodbye


“One of the grubby truths about a loss is that you don't just mourn the dead person, you mourn the person you got to be when the lost one was alive. This loss might even be what affects you the most.”
― Meghan O'Rourke, quote from The Long Goodbye


“The people we most love do become a physical part of us, ingrained in our synapses, in the pathways where memories are created.”
― Meghan O'Rourke, quote from The Long Goodbye


“In the months that followed my mother's death, I managed to look like a normal person. I walked the street; I answered my phone; I brushed my teeth; most of the time. But I was not OK. I was in grief. Nothing seemed important. Daily tasks were exhausting. Dishes piled in the sink, knives crusted with strawberry jam. At one point I did not wash my hair for ten days. I felt that I had abruptly arrived at a terrible, insistent truth about the impermanence of everyday.”
― Meghan O'Rourke, quote from The Long Goodbye



About the author

Meghan O'Rourke
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“The record is replete with witnesses reporting that they were intimidated
by various authorities. Could all of them, unconnected and unknown to
each other, be having the same fantasies? And if the threats were real, the
obvious question is: why would any law enforcement officer at any level,
or any anonymous phone caller, for that matter, threaten someone if the
assassination was the result of a random act by a lone nut that was no longer
alive? But this is akin to asking why any information about the murder
of John F. Kennedy was ever withheld, let alone still withheld after fifty
years, on the grounds of “national security” if Lee Harvey Oswald was a
minimum-wage loser, with no conspirators, who was out to impress his
estranged wife.”
― Donald Jeffries, quote from Hidden History: An Exposé of Modern Crimes, Conspiracies, and Cover-Ups in American Politics


“Life leaves scars. Sometimes you don’t see them until later. Sometimes you don’t know where they’ve come from. Sometimes they fade before your eyes. But the world leaves its mark on us.”
― Karina Halle, quote from The Pact


“If you can leave a relationship with love, empathy, and compassion, without any thoughts of revenge, hatred, or fear, that is how you let go.”
― Brian L. Weiss, quote from Same Soul, Many Bodies: Discover the Healing Power of Future Lives through Progression Therapy


“Bonaventure always liked pictures because even though they had no mouths they managed to speak.”
― quote from The Silence of Bonadventure Arrow


“What did you think I would do? Ask her if I could braid her hair after we gave each other facials and painted our toenails?
Marcus”
― Dianne Duvall, quote from Night Reigns


Interesting books

The House of Sleep
(7.6K)
The House of Sleep
by Jonathan Coe
Go Set a Watchman
(180.6K)
Go Set a Watchman
by Harper Lee
The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide
(26.5K)
The Twilight Saga: T...
by Stephenie Meyer
Heir to the Shadows
(21.5K)
Heir to the Shadows
by Anne Bishop
Dork Diaries Book 1: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life
(38.7K)
Dork Diaries Book 1:...
by Rachel Renée Russell
Shadow of the Giant
(43.4K)
Shadow of the Giant
by Orson Scott Card

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.