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All I Quotes

“If she had answered him honestly she would have said this: To go back to the beginning. She would tell her thirteen-year-old-self not to visit the woman. To her twenty-five-year-old self: Find Simon, forgive him. She would tell herself to take care of Klara, to sign up for JDate, to stop the nurse before she took the baby out of her arms. She'd tell herself she would die, she would die, they all would. She would tell herself to pay attention to the smell of Klara's hair, the feel of Daniel's arms as he reached down to hug her, Simon's stubby thumbs- my God, their hands, all of them, Klara's hummingbird-quick, Daniel's slender and restless. She'd tell herself that what she really wanted was not to live forever, but to stop worrying.”

“If she had been a normal female, she would have swooned. But she was not normal, never had been. “Good grief, you are impossibly handsome,” she said breathlessly. “I vow, I have never experienced the like. For an instant, my brain stopped altogether. I must say, my lord, you do clean up well. But next time, I wish you would call out a warning before you come into view, and give me a chance to brace myself for the onslaught.” Something dark flickered in his eyes. Then a corner of his hard mouth quirked up. “Miss Adams, you have an interesting — a unique — way with a compliment.” The trace of a smile disoriented her further. “It is a unique experience,” she said. “I never knew my brain to shut off before, not while I was full awake. I wonder if the phenomenon has been scientifically documented and what physiological explanation has been proposed.”

“If she had been left alone she would have gone on, in her own way, enjoying herself thoroughly, until people found one day that she had turned imperceptibly into one of those women who have become old without ever having been middle aged: a little withered, a little acid, hard as nails, sentimentally kindhearted, and addicted to religion or small dogs.”

“If she had even once rejected Grandma Bev's insistence that she put on a happy face and make the best of things, if she had just told her mother how hurt and abandoned she'd felt, maybe they wouldn't have had to endure over two decades of distance and resentment. Maybe she would have had her mother. Grandma Bev meant well, no doubt. She was trying to give Melody the resilience she'd needed to deal with all the changes in her young life, but it had only taught her to escape into fiction- both the kind in books and that of her own making. And instead of growing deeper in a true faith, one that was tested in tears and anguished prayers, she stuffed down her pain and retreated to superstition and magical thinking. She'd looked at God's providence like she'd looked at fairy tales- blindly and without any real belief. She'd gone from man to man, trying to buy their love at too high a price, all because she wouldn't admit how much she needed that love. How much it hurt that it always seemed to be out of reach. And because she wouldn't admit any of it, she just went on haplessly repeating her mistakes instead of turning to the One who loved her no matter what.”

“If she had had the money, she would have put herself through enough plastic surgery to look respectable again. She didn't understand women, like Betsy, who had the money and didn't want to. For the same reason, she would never live in one of the outer boroughs or in the suburbs, no matter how much more space she could get for how much less money. It said something about you that you could not stay in Manhattan, that you valued a few extra square feet over the chance to be close to art, literature and history. The six tall tumblers in her kitchen cabinet had come from Steuben Glass and cost $345 for the set. The green silk dress she was wearing had come from Brooks Brothers and cost $225 off the rack.”

“If she had listened to her father, if she had listened to the cousin's husband, she would never have married Note and the years of unhappiness would never have occurred. But they did, because she was headstrong, as everyone is at the age of twenty, and when we simply cannot see, however much we may think we can . The world is full of twenty-year-olds, she thought, all of them blind.”

“If she had loved him, he would have opened windows, allowed all of that precious light of hers in she wanted! If she could tolerate him, he would have donated to every stinking animal shelter in her name, quit his drinking habits completely, and played music for her anytime she wanted! He would have gone out, faced the cruel public, and embraced their scorn just to be close to her, continued to hide in the shadows of her life until she needed him… If she had loved him, he would have done anything.”

“If she hadn't known that Mallow Island had been famous for its marshmallow candy over a century ago, Trade Street would have told her right away. It was busy and mildly surreal. The sidewalks were crowded with tourists taking pictures of old, narrow buildings painted in faded pastel colors. Nearly every restaurant and bakery had a chalkboard sign with a marshmallow item on its menu---marshmallow popcorn, chocolate milk served in toasted marshmallow cups, sweet potato fries with marshmallow dipping sauce.”

“If she herself had had any picture of the future, it had been of a society of animals... all equal... the strong protecting the weak... Instead- She did not know why- they had come to a time when no one dared speak his mind, when fierce, growling dogs roamed everywhere, and when you had to watch your comrades torn to pieces after confessing to shocking crimes.”