Home > Author > Lisa Taddeo
121 " It felt as though, with desire, nobody wanted anyone else, particularly a woman, to feel it. Marriage was okay. Marriage was its own prison, its own mortgage. Here is a place for you to lay your head and here is a food bowl for the dog. If you fuck around, if you try to build a steam bath, may everything you fear come to pass. "
― Lisa Taddeo , Three Women
122 " Sloane didn’t want or need a man in that way. But she did want more from life than what it seemed one person could give her. She wanted bigger experiences. "
123 " She can’t say anything. She could say, Thank you, but even that is wrong, because Thank you means that Sloane assumes he wouldn’t have done it otherwise, and even though he will never do something on his own, he thinks he would. "
124 " They sort of fell away from each other, in tiny increments. The trick, she’d learned, was never to be honest, and also never to actually lie. "
125 " She can’t say anything. She could say, Thank you, but even that is wrong, because Thank you means that Sloane assumes he wouldn’t have done it otherwise, and even though he will never do something on his own, he thinks he would. Of course eventually he would do something. Like, if she were dead. And anyway Sloane doesn’t want to be a nag. "
126 " It’s a surprise party at Spitfire Bar & Grill, where baked potatoes are served with ramekins of sour cream on beige plates of prime rib. Everything has chives or hoary scallions sprinkled on top. "
127 " ...the first day you meet someone like that you still have your self-decency, you still can have an interest in life beyond every tendril of their hair. "
― Lisa Taddeo , Animal
128 " On Monday, Aaron’s actual birthday, there is a big snowstorm. Prettily, it whitewashes Fargo and makes the roads and the trees look clean. "
129 " Aidan laughs! Aidan laughs! "
130 " Even in love Lina understands there is competition—a frantic need to be the one who will hurt less than the other. "
131 " She sends him a picture of her haircut. He writes, Sexy lingerie would be nice. She strips down to her black lace panties and push-up bra that she bought for him. She lies down on the bed and takes a few pictures of herself and sends the best one. "
132 " As though kissing were the silliest thing. As though Lina were a preteen girl, stuck in a fantasy. Perhaps, she thinks, it’s because she did not get to do it enough in high school. It was never enough. "
133 " fear. In a drugstore she texts him, Have you ever used KY Warming jelly? He says, No, what would u use it for. I can think of some things I would put it on and then lick off. He says something about lakes and she says something about shrinkage and he says something about getting smaller and she says she can make it bigger and he asks, How’s that? "
134 " This doesn’t bother you? You’re your own person, Kid. Nah, I mean, there’s no spark. He’s your best friend. Besides, he’s a little creepy! Aidan laughs! Aidan laughs! They are quiet for another while and then Aidan says, So what’s this thing you brought? "
135 " Sammy is just a kid, Maggie realizes, who can’t give her advice. Sammy is doing kid things and Maggie has lost her vampire lover. "
136 " What is the point of anything. What is the point of washing all his underwear. For a man who makes no decisions. For a man who does not even decide on the route of his day. "
137 " She jumps off the hood of her car and moves to mash the five and the single into his window. She hasn’t yet considered how difficult it will be to clean the crème off the ridges of the car floor where it will have melted. She doesn’t think about the pieces of it in her hair. She tries to mash the bills through the window but he drives off while she’s doing it and the bills remain in her hand. Anyhow, she will say later to the women at the conference table in the doctor’s office, I stayed out there another thirty minutes or so, just watching the trees until it got dark and I was late getting home. "
138 " Maggie has been fatherless for several months but still she wakes some mornings and forgets. She wakes up happy, by accident. "
139 " Later, in bed, Maggie doesn't intend it, but the words fly out of her mouth.I think I love you, she says. "
140 " Maggie quits. This is how Maggie handles adversity. If someone criticizes her in the wrong way, not taking the time to tell her that she is still worth something, she doesn't try to do better. She just says, Fuck it, fuck yourself. "