Maybe this was what Aunt Peg meant all along – returning was a weird thing. You can never visit the same place twice. Each time, it’s a different story. By the very act of coming...

This pool is a triumph of imagination. That’s how you win at life, Gin. You have to imagine your way through. Never say something can’t be done. There’s always a solution, even if it’s weird.

I knew it was beautiful, but knowing something is beautiful and caring about it are two very different things, and I didn’t care.

Claim whatever you want. Say you only want a happy family or a successful career or a big house. I say: no, that’s not what you want. You’ll settle for those things, but you really...

I don’t know if there is actually more rain here in England, or if it was just that the rain seemed to be so deliberately annoying. Every drop hit the window with a peevish “Am...

Things change. Never act is if situations won’t change

Irony is the word I forget the meaning of immediately after I look it up, but I kind of feel like I live in a constant state of it.

WORTH IT and perfect are different things. No one’s perfect, yet in romance, everyone becomes WORTH IT. And that’s the trick.

English rain feels obligatory, like paperwork. It dampens already damn days and slicks the stones.

People can’t really sympathize with you properly when you’ve woken them up

Of course, he showed me this one afternoon when he was skipping class. When trolls cut classes, you think they are losers. When the beautiful and/or reasonably erudite do the same thing to sit on...

I looked at the stained-glass image of the lamb in the window above me, but that only reminded me that lambs are famous for being led to slaughter, or sometimes hanging out with lions in...

Life is always going to be a series of ouch-making moments, and the question was, was I going to go all fetal position, or was I going to woman up? I went into fetal position...

Money is for doing things, my love. Don’t sit on it like a hen sits on an egg. It doesn’t hatch. I should know. I’ve made enough of it.

Sometimes people graduate but they don’t leave. They hang around for years, for no reason. I would think of ghosts like that, I decided.

When she emerged, Keith was watching the tiny round window of the under-the-counter washing machine. “Put your clothes in for a wash,” he said. “They were disgusting.”Ginny always thought that the only way of getting...

Boo: “Go talk to her.”Callum: “About what?”Boo: “Anything.”Callum: “You want me to walk up to her and say, ‘Are you a ghost?'”Boo: “I do that.”Callum: “I love it when you get it wrong.

You can’t curl up on the sofa and deny life forever. Life is always going to be a series of ouch-making moments, and the question was, was I going to go all fetal-position or was...

I had one class in the morning, the mysteriously named “Further Maths”. It was two hours long and so deeply frightening that I think I went into a trance.

Every time you try to flirt with her, a puppy dies.

Shame is like melting. You can actually feel your muscles sag and drop, as if your body is preparing you to crawl, or possibly ooze, to the nearest exit.

People were freaked out, but they showed it in weird ways. Back home, people would have been weeping and doing a lot of very public group hugs. At Wexford people just aggressively pretended nothing had...

I try to shake it loose-but these ideas, they cling. It’s like I’m shackled to them with an iron chain. They rattle along behind me, dragging against the ground, always reminding me of their presence.

I’m done. I’m going to go to bed and read important books about theater.””It would would be easier if you just said porn,” Scarlett said.”No idea what you’re talking about. But knock first if you...

Many large corporations are actually modeled on hell,’ Brother Frank added. ‘The policies and organization are almost idential. Hell, of course, is much worse.

I decided to deflect her attitude by giving a long, Southern answer. I come from people who know how to draw things out. Annoy a Southerner, and we will drain away the moments of your...

I don’t mind bigots. You’re allowed to be bigoted, if that makes you happy. Just do it at home. And not around the children.

Fear can’t hurt you. When it washes over you, give it no power. it’s a snake with no venom.

I followed your footsteps,” he said, in answer to the unspoken question. “Snow makes it easy.” I had been tracked, like a bear. “Sorry to make you go to all that trouble,” I said. “I...

It was as if the news itself wanted to reassure me. Even Jack the Ripper himself had reappeared as part of the greeting committee.

Don’t get stabbed. It makes everything awkward.

Eton produced Society’s Monsters – everyone knew that. Politicians, mostly, and occasionally people who ran banks and all the other institutions that stole the world’s spoils for themselves.

I was pretty sure we were both kind of terrified, but I was completely sure that we were both doing this. We kissed slowly, very deliberately, coming together and then pulling apart and looking at...

i get a little romantic about the old Empire State. Just looking at it makes me want to play some Frank Sinatra tunes and sway a little. I have a crush on a building. I’d...

This is England,” he explained. “Tell someone it’s a procedure, and they’ll believe you. The pointless procedure is one of our great natural resources.

My final word: don’t follow your dreams . . . chase them. With a stick, or a shovel, or whatever you have handy. Get that [bleep]ing dream!

Kissing is something that makes up for a lot of other crap you have to put up with…It can be confusing and weird and awkward, but sometimes it just makes you melt and forget everything...

I sleep better knowing that a naked cork-eater is not sneaking around at night, stealing my underwear.

It just seemed like telling the truth would mean admitting some weakness

She had always thought applying to college would be exciting. Living away from home, meeting so many new people, Learning new things, making a few poor life desicisons….

With that, I splashed some water on my face, fixed on a smile, and stepped out. I would find Jerome. I would make him explain to me what I was missing. We would laugh, then...

Lecturing Brooks was as useful as lecturing a cat.

Guilt isn’t always a rational thing, Clio realized. Guilt is a weight that will crush you whether you deserve it or not.