Books I Like: Sleeping Beauties

Here are my favorite quotes...

Another part of getting older: you forgot what you wanted to remember, and remembered what you wanted to forget.

The ones you really had to watch out for in this world were the ones that couldn’t love even a cat or a dog.

Better not to fixate on what couldn’t be changed.

As the twig is bent, so the bough is shaped.

Anger was excellent fuel if you refined it correctly.

I think you believe that, which shows how well you’ve hidden it.

Bullies usually only get physical when they smell weakness

You wore your history like a necklace, a smelly one made of garlic

Each marriage had its own language, its own code words, built of mutual experience.

Logic had very little power over emotions

Acceptance isn’t the same as giving up

Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind

We were always on the same team. In all ways, he thought. It wasn’t just how we rolled, it was how we survived

It’s what’s left unspoken that can really damage a marriage

That was the hurtful part of motherhood, not being able to fix what you couldn’t understand

She knew men were taught (primarily by other men, of course) that they were to keep their pain to themselves, but she also knew marriage was supposed to undo some of that teaching

People tend to focus on the small things to keep the big ones from overwhelming them

The law was impersonal; it wasn’t about your feelings, it was about your argument

Familiarity might or might not breed contempt, but it certainly bred belief

Sometimes you get what you want, but mostly you get what you get

Exceptions were not the point. The point was the general case

He was nobody’s idea of a picnic, but there was a connection they had, a way they were in tune. He was words; she was music

Except, really, when had men not been mystified by women? They were the magic that men dreamed of, and sometimes their dreams were nightmares