“ People abandoned one another constantly without performing the courtesy of of actually disappearing. They left, but didn't, lurking about, a constant reminder of what could or should have been. Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
“ True patriotism, Jack believed, would have been for his fellow Americans to look inward after 9/11 and accept a little blame, admit the attacks had happened, in part, because of who they were in the w… Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
“ [Jack:] 'I was twenty-four when I met Walker. Do you know I've never lived alone? I'm forty-four years old and I've never lived alone. The first few weeks Walker was gone, I didn't know what to do wit… Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
“ Right now, it felt like there was nowhere for his thoughts to alight that wasn't rife with land mines of regret or anger or guilt. Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
“ Jack picked a piece of mint from his glass and chewed on it for a second. “I’m curious,” he said,“is telling someone to relax ever helpful? It’s like saying ‘breathe’ to someone who ishyperventilating… Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
“ This is nice,' Melody said, picking up a red leather box with a vintage watch inside.'Yes, it is nice. It's the watch I gave Walker as a wedding gift.''He gave it back?''Actually, he sold it back to t… Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
“ They’d fallen into their old ways, accusatory and evasive, which was reassuring in a perverted way. Leo understood the nasty pull of the regrettable familiar, how the old grooves could be so much more… Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
“ This was the part she hated, the part of a relationship that always nudged her to bail, the part where someone else’s misery or expectations or neediness crept into her carefully prescribed world. It… Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
“ So the first time she and Leo combusted, she'd practically been poised for the breakup. In some inexplicable way, she'd been looking forward to it and all its attendant drama, because wasn't there som… Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
