Truly Madly Guilty Quotes

“You could jump so much higher when you had somewhere safe to fall.”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“Everyone had another sort of life up their sleeve that might have made them happy.”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“There is no special protection when you cross that invisible line from your ordinary life to that parallel world where tragedies happen. It happens just like this. You don’t become someone else. You’re still exactly the same. Everything around you still smells and looks and feels exactly the same.”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“It was interesting that fury and fear could look so much the same.”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“That was the irony: Her mother loved things so much that she had nothing.”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“Nobody felt embarrassed in front of nice geeky people. That's why they were relaxing to be around.”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“No one warned you that having children reduced you right down to some smaller, rudimentary, primitive version of yourself, where your talents and your education and your achievements meant nothing. Clementine”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“Elderly women were as tough as nails but it seemed that men got softer as they aged; their emotions caught them off guard, as if some protective barrier had been worn away by time.”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“Two musicians could play the same notes and sound entirely different. Intonation was everything.”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“...the terrible though occurred to her that perhaps she'd always unconsciously believed that because Sam didn't cry, he therefore didn't feel, or he felt less, not as profoundly or deeply as she did. Her focus had always been on how his actions affected her feelings, as if his role was to do things for her, to her, and all that mattered was her emotional response to him, as if a "man" were a product or service, and she'd finally chosen the right brand to get the right response. Was it possible she'd never seen or truly loved him the way he deserved to be loved? As a person? An ordinary, flawed, feeling person?”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“She accumulates stuff to insulate herself from the world,”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“If he could just have one more chance, he'd act like the man he'd always believed himself to be.”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“Raising awareness. It’s a good thing. Makes people think twice.”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“Wherever she went, whatever she did, part of her mind was always imagining a hypothetical life running parallel to her actual one,”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“Life was all about consequences”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“No one warned you that having children reduced you right down to some smaller, rudimentary, primitive version of yourself, where your talents and your education and your achievements meant nothing.”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“It was strange, because she always felt that she hid herself from Erika, that she was more 'herself' with her 'true' friends, where the friendship flowed in an ordinary, uncomplicated, grown-up fashion (emails, phone calls, drinks, dinners, banter and jokes that everyone got), but right now it felt like none of those friends knew her the raw, ugly, childish, basic way that Erika did.”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“She felt detached from all aspects of her life. She had no time anymore to feel. All that time she used to waste feeling, and analyzing her feelings, as if they were a matter of national significance.”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“If her mother had been observing this interaction, she'd tell Clementine she was wrong, that she needed to keep talking, to say everything that was on her mind, to communicate, to leave no possibility for misinterpretation.

If her father were here, he'd put his finger to his lips and say, "Shh."

Clementine settled for two words.

"I'm sorry," she said.”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“...the terrible thought occurred to her that perhaps she'd always unconsciously believed that because Sam didn't cry, he therefore didn't feel, or he felt less, not as profoundly or deeply as she did. Her focus had always been on how his actions affected her feelings, as if his role was to do things for her, to her, and all that mattered was her emotional response to him, as if a "man" were a product or service, and she'd finally chosen the right brand to get the right response. Was it possible she'd never seen or truly loved him the way he deserved to be loved? As a person? An ordinary, flawed, feeling person?”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“This was historical revisionism at its best, and hadn't Sam always specialized in that, hadn't she always said she wished she had a permanent film rolling of their life so she could go back and prove that, yes, he did so say that thing he now denied?”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“Of course, a minute was enough. Never take your eyes off them. Never look away. It happens so fast. It happens without a sound. All those stories in the news. All those parents. All those mistakes she’d read about. ... Children with stupid, foolish, neglectful parents. Children who died while surrounded by so-called responsible adults. And each time she would pretend to be non-judgmental, but really, deep down she was thinking: Not me. That could never really happen to me.”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“both responded like thirsty plants to water when it came to parental approval.”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“I'm your best friend, Erika," he said sadly. "Don't you know that?”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“When he was a kid, it used to feel like his parents disappeared when the got drunk. As the levels of their glasses went down, he could sense them pulling away from him, as if they were together on the same boat, slowly pulling away from the shore where Oliver was left stranded, still himself, still boring, sensible Oliver, and he'd think, Please don't go, stay here with me, because his real mother was funny and his real father was smart, but they always went. First his dad got stupid and his mum got giggly, and then his mum got nasty and his dad got angry, and so it went until there was no point staying and Oliver went to watch movies in his bedroom. He'd had his own VCR in his bedroom. He'd had a privileged upbringing, had never wanted for anything.”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“She quite liked this aspect of her personality, the way her mood could change from melancholy to euphoric because of a breeze or a flavor or a beautiful chord progression. It meant she never had to feel too down about feeling down.”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“She wanted to hug him and at the same time she kind of wanted to slap him.”
― Liane moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“She'd looked at the stubble along his jawline, and the thought had crossed her mind: He looks like Clark Kent, but maybe he's really Superman.”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“They tended to give a little start when she spoke, as if the potted plant had tried to join in the conversation.”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty

“It was interesting how a marriage instantly became public property as soon as it looked shaky.”
― Liane Moriarty, Truly Madly Guilty