Home > Author > Claire McGowan
1 " Entering her old school foyer was like stepping back in time. Paula felt an urge to roll down her socks and undo the top buttons of her shirt. Girls seemed to appear from every door and window, aware by some strange telepathy that a man had entered the premises. The air was heavy with Impulse and mild hysteria. It was strange, she thought, watching Guy's strong back go up the stairs. At that age she'd have considered him desperately old - someone's dad. But at some point, everything had changed. "
― Claire McGowan , The Lost (Paula McGuire, #1)
2 " We always think we want to know secrets, but what we forget is that they come with their own weights, heavy as millstones, and if you aren’t careful this weight can crush you. "
― Claire McGowan , What You Did
3 " No one ever tells you that this is the downside of giving your kids everything you never had – they turn into spoiled little brats. "
4 " It was the details that mattered when the entire world had fallen apart. "
5 " Hope blinds you. "
― Claire McGowan , The Other Wife
6 " Funny how when the words run out, in lust or in shock or in grief, we call to a God we don’t believe in any more. "
7 " when you think you’ve lost it all, there is still more that can be taken from you. "
8 " It’s a strange experience, hearing your spouse talk to a complete stranger. You want to shout out, That isn’t true! You never told me that! Like a test you don’t understand why you’re failing. "
9 " He ordered a Newcastle Brown Ale, and sipped it with enjoyment. "
10 " I knew him – he did nothing but lie. The whole time. Where he was, how old he was, who he was seeing . . . He was a fantasist, I suppose you’d call it. So no, I haven’t spoken to him in years, and I’m glad. "
11 " always wanting something different than what was there. Never wanting to be where I was. It got to be an everyday pain, like walking around on a broken leg you don’t even notice "
12 " But those moments, when I managed not to think about the truth . . . it was that I missed more than anything. "
13 " I hate all this, this social media mob. We aren’t meant to know what other people think in this level of detail. "
14 " eyes looked now as well. Cassie said, in a small "
15 " The things we don’t know about our friends. The things we don’t ask. "
16 " You aren’t allowed to say it but your wedding is perilously close to a licence to let out the selfish little diva inside all of us. It says to girls – you won’t matter any more, not after this, so for today you get to matter the most. "
17 " If I’d learned anything from these last weeks, it was that it wasn’t possible to save everyone. You just had to pick someone, and save them, and let the rest drown. "
18 " Rumination, they call it in psychology. When your brain worries away at a minor thing until you wear a hole in yourself, like an unravelling jumper. "
19 " There is a certain feeling when the worst happens, and the bottom falls out of your world, and you somehow pick yourself up from that and stabilise, adjust. There is another feeling when you suddenly find out this is not the worst, not by a long way. "
20 " Will they need lunch? "
