“Like I was in some knockoff Henry James novel, some knockoff Merchant Ivory adaptation of same.”
Source: Topics of Conversation
“Also that this cruelty was, for us, a way to commune. A source, even, of joy.”
Source: Topics of Conversation
“Another of the premises of our friendship was that we loathed emotional intimacy even as we understood its necessity. Speaking with casual nonchalance about subjects that caused us great pain was our preferred workaround.”
Source: Topics of Conversation
“At last everything was satisfactorily arranged, and I could not help admiring the setting: these mingled touches betrayed on a small scale the inspiration of a poet, the research of a scientist, the good taste of an artist, the gourmet’s fondness for good food, and the love of flowers, which concealed in their delicate shadows a hint of the love of women”
Source: Madman's Defence
“I have been, in my life, just close enough to wealth to touch the rotting lace of its hem. Another way to put this: my family has been, still is, richer than most.”
Source: Topics of Conversation
“My mind so filled with this one desire . . . it might as well have been blank.”
Source: Topics of Conversation
“Having a baby, in any case, is never ethical.”
Source: Topics of Conversation
“That's not true. I did meet both Laura and my ex-husband in graduate school, but they weren't dating. That would be a better story. I am often thinking of the better story because the actual story is so often boring.”
Source: Topics of Conversation
“But he ran a bookstore, managed it, was well read, which we cared about then, whether someone had read the same books we had, and which I try to, have to, care less about now.”
Source: Topics of Conversation
“It might be worth mentioning that at that moment I hated Laura, was glad her marriage had fallen apart, that her ceaseless trust in the world had at last been proven foolish. Finding friends in every city she moved to, marrying a man on the strength of what, who knows, everywhere manufacturing happiness, happiness, happiness. But her luck had run out. Her story was still the better story, but finally, thank god, she was miserable in it.”
Source: Topics of Conversation