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
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Popular quotes

“- Радвай се, че не си майка в такива времена – отвърна му тя. – Защото, ако беше, щеше да се радваш, че двамата ти скарани синове отново ще се съберат, но едновременно с това щеше да се изпълниш със страх, че и двете ти деца вероятно ще са мъртви. Противоречието на това щастие и този ужас би ти се сторило непоносимо.
- Радвай се, че не си мъж – каза в отговор той. – Защото, щом престанем да спим, виждаме, че на този свят до нас има единствено врагове – врагове, които се преструват, че ни защитават, които стоят, направени от оръжия и облекла в цвят каки, и алчност, и смърт, а зад тях са враговете, които се преструват, че ни спасяват в името на собствения ни Бог, само че и те също са изтъкани от смърт и алчност, а пък зад тях са враговете, живеещи сред нас, носещи безбожни имена, които ни прелъстяват и после ни предават, врагове, за които смъртта е прекалено меко наказание, а още по-отзад са враговете, които никога не виждаме, те дърпат конците на живота ни. Този последен враг, невидимият враг в невидимата стая в чуждата страна, някъде много далеч: пред него искам да се изправя, и ако се наложи да си проправя пътя през всички останали, за да се добера до него, тогава така и ще сторя.”
― Salman Rushdie, quote from Shalimar the Clown


“If we as Christians do not speak out as authoritarian governments grow from within or come from outside, eventually we or our children will be the enemy of society and the state. No truly authoritarian government can tolerate those who have real absolute by which to judge its arbitrary absolutes and who speak out and act upon that absolute.”
― Francis A. Schaeffer, quote from How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture


“She'd pushed it down, crushed it beneath the weight of stubborn determination, but still it haunted her at night, when such terrors shamble from their dens to torment innocent insomniacs.”
― quote from Thief's Covenant


“As far as I can see there is no conquering or exorcising the past with words - words born either of imagination or forthrightness.”
― Philip Roth, quote from My Life as a Man


“don’t you scrub up and have your dinner, and then you can decide where to go,” Mom said. I didn’t want to admit that I was hungry, but I was. And”
― Judy Blume, quote from Superfudge


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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.

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