“ There was nothing about youth that was fair: the young hadn't done anything to deserve it, and the old hadn't done anything to drive it away. Emma Straub
“ She’d read all of Jane Austen that year—Austen was good, but when you told people you liked Pride and Prejudice, they expected you to be all sunshine and wedding veils, and Sylvia preferred the rainy… Emma Straub
“ Why couldn't everyone stay young forever? If not on the outside, then just on the inside, where no one ever got too old to be optimistic. Emma Straub
“ There was nothing in life harder or more important than agreeing every morning to stay the course, to go back to your forgotten self of so many years ago, and to make the same decision. Emma Straub
“ ...all she wanted was a button she could push to pause her age, just for a little while, a few years, while she got used to the idea. Emma Straub
“ Elizabeth ran her finger along the windowsill, gathering dust. The view was almost exactly the same as from her own bedroom, only a few degrees shifted. She could still see the Rosens' place, with its… Emma Straub
“ She had the wild look of someone who hadn’t slept in twenty-four hours, with purplish semicircles underneath both her eyes. Being eighteen was like being made out of rubber and cocaine. Emma Straub
“ Some people smoked crack in alleyways. Franny ate chocolate. On the scale of things, it seemed entirely reasonable. Emma Straub
“ It was so long ago now that the job felt like part of her soul. Like being a teacher or an artist who made things out of sand. You never really saw the results. You just trusted that you knew what you… Emma Straub
“ Why bother getting married, going through all the pomp and pageantry, if you didn't think it was going to last? It was far easier to live in sin and not have to deal with the paperwork. Emma Straub
