“She was so much better at being alone; being alone came more naturally to her. She led a life of deliberate solitude, and if occasional loneliness crept in, she knew how to work her way out of that particular divot. Or even better, how to sink in and absorb its particular comforts.”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“Parents are temporary custodians, keeping watch and offering love and trying to leave the child better than they found him.”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“She supposed she could Google, but she preferred to wonder.”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“She was open to love, but she was best at managing her own happiness; it was other people’s happiness that sunk her.”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“Everyone’s always on the hunt for a mirror. It’s basic psychology. You want to see yourself reflected in others. Others—your sister, your parents—they want to look at you and see themselves. They want you to be a flattering reflection of them—and vice-versa. It’s normal. I suppose it’s really normal if you’re a twin. But being somebody else’s mirror? That is not your job.” Nora”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“She believed in second chances, sometimes more than first chances, which were wasted on youth and indiscretion.”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“This was the part she hated, the part of a relationship that always nudged her to bail, the part where someone else’s misery or expectations or neediness crept into her carefully prescribed world. It was such a burden, other people’s lives.”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“Right now, it felt like there was nowhere for his thoughts to alight that wasn't rife with land mines of regret or anger or guilt.”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“His love for her was quiet and constant, familiar and soothing; it was almost its own thing entirely, like a worn rock or a set of worry beads, something he’d pick up and weigh in his palm occasionally, more comforting than dispiriting.”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“True patriotism, Jack believed, would have been for his fellow Americans to look inward after 9/11 and accept a little blame, admit the attacks had happened, in part, because of who they were in the world, not in spite of it.”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“People abandoned one another constantly without performing the courtesy of of actually disappearing. They left, but didn't, lurking about, a constant reminder of what could or should have been.”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“It's not your job to be anyone's mirror.”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“People might not change but their incentives could.”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“Everyone’s always on the hunt for a mirror. It’s basic psychology. You want to see yourself reflected in others.”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“I you want people to judge you based on the inside, don't distract them from the outside.”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“Nothing was a sure thing; every choice was just an educated guess, or a leap into a mysterious abyss. People might not change but their incentives could. So”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“a long, boozy evening when her ebullience was so uncorrupted that she could shift a room’s atmosphere”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“I hate wearing flats,” she said, tugging her fitted white blouse a little lower. “They make me feel flat all over.”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“So the first time she and Leo combusted, she'd practically been poised for the breakup. In some inexplicable way, she'd been looking forward to it and all its attendant drama, because wasn't there something nearly lovely–when you were young enough–about guts churning and tear ducts being put to glorious overuse? She recognized the undeniable satisfaction of the first emotional fissure because an unraveling was still something grown-up and, therefore, life affirming. See? The broken heart signalled. I loved enough to lose; I felt enough to weep. Because when you were young enough, the stakes of love were so very small, nearly insignificant. How tragic could a breakup be when it was part of the fabric of expectation from the beginning? The hackneyed fights, the late-night phone calls, the indignant recounting for friends over multiple drinks and in earshot of an appropriately flirtatious bartender–it was theatre for a certain type of person . . . Until it wasn't.”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“abundance proffered too soon led to lassitude and indolence, a wandering dissatisfaction.”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“Accommodation. A different and sturdier kind of nest. AS”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“They’d fallen into their old ways, accusatory and evasive, which was reassuring in a perverted way. Leo understood the nasty pull of the regrettable familiar, how the old grooves could be so much more satisfying than the looming unknown. It’s addicts stayed addicts.”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“Leo was the only one who had never petitioned Francie for a loan using The Nest as collateral. Jack and Melody and Bea had all asked at one time that she consider an earlier dispersal, but she stubbornly refused.Until Leo’s accident.”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“I’m curious,” he said, “is telling someone to relax ever helpful? It’s like saying ‘breathe’ to someone who is hyperventilating or ‘swallow’ to a person who’s choking. It’s a completely useless admonition.” “I”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“Right now, it felt like there was nowhere for his thoughts to alight that wasn’t rife with land mines of regret or anger or guilt. “You’re”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“Sometimes a small change could make all the difference.”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“She was so much better at being alone; being alone came more naturally to her. She led a life of deliberate solitude, and if occasional loneliness crept in, she knew how to work her way out … Or even better, how to sink in and absorb its particular comforts.”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“If you want to predict a person’s behavior, identify his or her incentives. Leo”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“The shelf held nothing of value and it held everything of value. It was the past they’d both endured and escaped. It was despair and hope. It was life and death.”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
“Being somebody's looking glass is not your job.”
― Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, quote from The Nest
Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
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“Adam,' I say, 'had good times and he had bad times.' I pause here and glance at Nana, see that she is crying silently, the way I cried at the duck pond in the park. I was going to say something more about the bad times- how Adam's bad times were different from most people's, and that I'll never really understand them. But now that I see Nana's tears, see her start to reach for Papa's hand, then pull back and fold her hands in her lap again- now that I see Nana, I change my mind.
I think we should remember that Adam was one of those people who could lift the corners of our universe,' I say. I clear my throat. 'Thank you.'
As I slide into our pew I realize I feel older. I think of Janet and Nancy and find that nonw I can brush them away. And I understand that Adam and I are not as alike as I had thought. I remembered the tortured look on Adam's face the night of the Ferris wheel and the look of happiness, happiness, and realize that Adam's decision to take his life was not made easily. It took a certain kind of courage. Just not the kind of courage I chose.
I settle between Mom and Dad, and they take my hands and smmile at me. No tears. I squeeze their hands.
~pgs 177-178; Hattie on life”
― Ann M. Martin, quote from A Corner of the Universe
“A life-mate is supposed to fulfil the basic standards of a life cycle and a soul-mate is the one purely connected to your heart.”
― Shikha Kaul, quote from Hidden Husband
“I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine. (Song of Solomon 6:3a)”
― quote from Holy Bible, New King James Version
“Innocence is a bleeding wound without a bandage, a wound that opens with every casual knock from casual passers-by. Experience is an armour.”
― Hilary Mantel, quote from Fludd
“Every time we step into the discomfort of growth and progress, we become more free. The more fears we walk through, the more power we reclaim. In this way, we grow both fearless and powerful, and thus are able to live the lives of our dreams. I”
― Robin S. Sharma, quote from The Secret Letters of the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
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