Denise Grover Swank · 374 pages
Rating: (24.5K votes)
“The next morning, beer and I mutually decided our relationship wasn’t going to work out.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
“I sighed, a deep and heavy sigh. If only sighs could carry all my troubles away.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
“I wondered if somehow, without my knowing it, I had been cast in a Lifetime channel movie.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
“...with the company of just myself, my thoughts presented themselves like unwelcome houseguests.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
“Why I waited until the last days of my life to feel pampered and beautiful. People tell themselves there’s plenty of time to do it all, but most of the time they never see death coming.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
“Most of the time I paid it no mind. I kept to myself and everyone in my town of Henryetta liked it that way. While my grandma saw helpful information such as droughts and locust infestations, I was cursed with seeing useless and mundane things like Mrs. White’s toilet overflow or the ear infection in Jenny Baxter’s baby. None of that would be so bad if I kept what I saw to myself, but my visions didn't work that way. Without any volition of my own, whatever I saw just blurted right out of my mouth. Most of the people who knew me thought I was a snoop or a gossip, the only rational explanation to reason away my knowledge. But Momma had another opinion. She declared me demon-possessed.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
“I was paving the highway to hell in beet bottles and kisses.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
“Trust was a tricky thing. Usually the perosn asking for the trust had to prove they were worthy to receive it.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
“I find myself thinking about her all the time. But I hurt her. I didn’t mean to hurt her. I’d do anything to take back the pain I caused, but I don’t think she’ll listen to me. So the only thing I know to do is start over, then maybe she’ll give me another chance.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
“he wasn’t who I thought he was.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
“It all started when I saw myself dead.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
“I raised my eyebrows in surprise. "Are you talking about Agnes Gardner?" I had a sneaking suspicion she was at the wrong visitation.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
“But misery is misery, no matter what its cause and we were both drowning in it. I”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
“The next morning, beer and I mutually decided our relationship wasn’t going to work out. I wondered why it decided to turn on me as I clung to the toilet, waiting to puke my guts out. Everything had been going so well the night before.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
“The dam of tears broke again and I cried softly, grateful for the love I didn’t deserve because the gift of me didn’t seem to be enough.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
“what’s wrong with being different? Sometimes it’s good to stand apart from everyone else.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
“What that woman said, it wasn't right. Just remember that she doesn’t know you. You can’t change the opinions of small-minded people.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
“I fell asleep, lying against his chest listening to the soft beat of his heart in my ear, my own full of joy.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
“The next morning, beer and I mutually decided our relationship wasn´t going to work out.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
“Gossip in Henryetta spread faster than a smallpox plague in an internment camp.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
“I didn't know how many police cars the city of Henryetta owned, but I was willing to bet money all of them were currently parked in front of my house.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
“My smile rivaled the width of the Grand Canyon.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
“my computer screen. A scruffy man in his mid-thirties”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
“the wall in the hallway, watching Violet and her family”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
“As the evening went on, I discovered that visitations are all about lying. Momma never looked so good, both physically and in personality, as she did dead. We heard how wonderful, kind, clever, and generous she was, adjectives no one in their right mind would have used a week ago.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
“huff. “I need to renew my plates,” he said. Irritation”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
“We walked to the car, side by side, but a million miles apart.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
“Just—let me hold you. That’s all. Hold you and go to sleep.” He smoothed his thumbs over the back of her hands. “You can tell me everything about tableware.”
She was silent a moment, gazing down at their hands. Then she said, “Would you like to know about holloware or flatware?”
“Flatware. Naturally, flatware.”
“I shall certainly put you to sleep with that. I venture to say you’ll be snoring by the time I get to the runcible spoon.”
“My God. Do I snore?”
“You were decidedly snoring last night, as I was enlightening you upon the nature and arrangement of sideboards. I’m rather a connoisseur of sideboards, but I suppose not everyone enters into my own enthusiasm. Kindly refrain from swearing, if you please.”
“I beg your pardon.” He kissed her nose...”
― Laura Kinsale, quote from The Shadow and the Star
“I don't have anything to give you, except to show you a way to better yourself.”
― Kien Nguyen, quote from The Unwanted: A Memoir of Childhood
“[A man], who is in prosperity, while he sees that others have to contend with great wretchedness and that he could help them, thinks: What concern is it of mine? Let everyone be as happy as Heaven pleases, or as he can make himself; I will take nothing from him nor even envy him, only I do not wish to contribute anything to his welfare or to his assistance in distress! Now no doubt, if such a mode of thinking were a universal law, the human race might very well subsist, and doubtless even better than in a state in which everyone talks of sympathy and good-will, or even takes care occasionally to put it into practice, but, on the other side, also cheats when he can, betrays the rights of men, or otherwise violates them. But although it is possible that a universal law of nature might exist in accordance with that maxim, it is impossible to will that such a principle should have the universal validity of a law of nature. For a will which resolved this would contradict itself, inasmuch as many cases might occur in which one would have need of the love and sympathy of others, and in which, by such a law of nature, sprung from his own will, he would deprive himself of all hope of the aid he desires.”
― Immanuel Kant, quote from Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
“It was fucking weird. They had gone from a sickening, "in love" couple doing a duet to the complete opposite in the span of two songs. Who knew the Beatles were still so controversial.”
― Karina Halle, quote from Lying Season
“If you didn't feel like your support system was strong enough, then getting yourself out of the situation was the best thing to do”
― Lindsey Kelk, quote from I Heart New York
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