Home > Author > Rumaan Alam
21 " If they didn’t know how it would end, with night, with more terrible noise from the top of Olympus, with bombs, with disease, with blood, with happiness, with deer or something else watching them from the darkened woods—well, wasn’t that true of every day? "
― Rumaan Alam , Leave the World Behind
22 " He kissed the worn cotton on Rose’s shoulder and regretted that he did not believe in prayer. "
23 " Worry was infinite. A parent’s only task was to protect his child. "
24 " The ice tinkles prettily: There's no more inviting sound to her, it's sophistication, like a British accent or that call-and-response of high-heeled shoes on tile. "
― Rumaan Alam , Rich and Pretty
25 " It was like some tacit agreement; everyone had ceded to things just falling apart. "
26 " Of course they’d never heard a noise like that before. You didn’t hear such a noise; you experienced it, endured it, survived it, witnessed it. You could fairly say that their lives could be divided into two: the period before they’d heard that noise and the period after. "
27 " Rose would have loved the flamingos. Maybe they should feel only awe at life’s mysteries, as children did. "
28 " To enjoyment. To the enjoyment of vacations. To the enjoyment of any moment in life, I guess. Enjoying a moment is a victory. I think we need to hold on to those. "
29 " She wanted her colleagues to need her as God wants people to keep praying. "
30 " just where you were, in the end. It was just "
31 " He retrieved his cigarettes from the glove box, wincing at the gravel. He sat on the front lawn in the shade of a tree and smoked. He should feel bad about this, but tobacco was the foundation of the nation. Smoking tethered you to history itself! It was a patriotic act, or once had been, anyway, like owning slaves or killing the Cherokee. "
32 " but they didn’t ask what the world would be when their children grew. "
33 " She could have got into that bed and read a book. She might even have dozed in that indolent way you do when you’re in a vacation home—not for need of rest but because you can. "
34 " The building lacked a thirteenth floor because that was terrible luck. Simply pretending it wasn’t there was better. "
35 " They were too young to appreciate the luck and chance that goes into making a person. "
― Rumaan Alam , That Kind of Mother
36 " He hoped the night would grow cold. He wanted to stand outside and shiver, then sink into the hot tub and look at the black limbs of the trees. "
37 " The television has done something to us. To human beings. We can see so much, but maybe we weren’t made to see this much. Maybe it’s too much. "
38 " Rebecca didn’t know what was the better luck: to have a bad parent you’re ever trying to outperform or a good one to whom you can never hope to catch up. "
39 " smells. “I loved the Icarus part, most. "
40 " Do you think the power is going to go out?” Clay thought the day—the smell of yellow sponge, the percussion of the rain—seemed almost unnervingly normal. “It goes out in storms, doesn’t it? Like, downed branches? And if there’s something wrong in the city. And then that noise, whatever that was? I think we’re lucky that it’s still on, but maybe we shouldn’t push our luck.” Amanda looked at her husband. “Go! "