Home > Author > S.E. Lynes
41 " Motivations are mysterious things; what we do and why. "
― S.E. Lynes , The Lies We Hide
42 " I just need to believe I can find real love, not fireworks and fancy tricks that end in cruelty. I want kindness. I'm never going to settle for anything less than kindness "
― S.E. Lynes , Her Sister's Secret
43 " Trouble with the no-smoking rule, you can smell the actual pub, can’t you? "
― S.E. Lynes , Can You See Her?
44 " And it strikes me now, years later, that not finding the words to say what we need to say is one of life's biggest tragedies. "
― S.E. Lynes , Mother
45 " without him, her life is something she no longer wants. "
― S.E. Lynes , The Baby Shower
46 " The fire, what came after the fire, the reality of my sister's life, her death - the truth has fallen in slow rain. Even now, I know I have yet to turn my face to its last acid drops "
47 " Compassion for myself is necessary if I am to treat myself better. But it seems to me a tragedy both specific and cruel that all the things we might do to lift ourselves out of our lowest moments – a long walk, a carefully prepared meal, a favourite piece of music – are, in those moments, all the things we cannot face, while all the things that will make us feel worse, much worse – eating junk, drinking too many glasses of wine, staying in a room that vibrates with haunted silence – seem infinitely enticing. "
― S.E. Lynes , The Housewarming
48 " What she did, what she gave, every day of her life, formed me every bit as much as my education did. I did not know that then, growing "
49 " But loneliness is like shame, she thinks. If you hold your head high, no one can see it. No one can know it is there "
50 " Men have always murdered, baited each other in packs. From Shakespeare to the latest gritty TV drama – gangs, senseless rivalries, war. "
51 " That's how it is with secrets: they dilute. Your own is the strongest possible concentration, someone else's already weaker, and so on until the secret is water running as freely through the village as from a burst main "
52 " It is history that tells us who we are… it is only history that can put us and everything we know into context… "
53 " But actually, it occurs to him, he’s not done anything he regrets. His regrets come from all that he did not do, all that he did not say. "
54 " Katie says I’m a weirdo for thinking everyone needs at least one hot meal a day, and I suppose it is old-fashioned, but that’s me. "
55 " Sound has nothing to sink into, smell has nowhere to dissipate. "
56 " He is only almost a man. "
57 " But it's always a risk, isn't it, reaching out to someone? Simply telling a person you love them, in whatever context, is to expose yourself to any damage they might wish to do to you, should they so choose. "
58 " Not that she isn’t grateful; just that she wonders if gratitude is ever free from shame, since the two seem much the same to her now. She fights off this shame as best she can. "
59 " Her life from this moment and what she does about it is no business of anyone else’s. "
― S.E. Lynes , The Women
60 " And small steps are what she takes. In a kind of post-traumatic fog. Life by minutes, hours, days. Texts not calls. No live interface, apart from Peter. Smiling survival. Quiet subterfuge. Days pass. "