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Clock Dance QUOTES

Clock Dance QUOTES

1 " I’ll just tell you what I’ve learned that has helped me,” he said. “Shall I?” “Yes, tell me,” she said, growing still. “I broke my days into separate moments,” he said. “See, it’s true I didn’t have any more to look forward to. But on the other hand, there were these individual moments that I could still appreciate. Like drinking that first cup of coffee in the morning. Working on something fine in my workshop. Watching a baseball game on TV.” She thought that over. “But…” she said. He waited. “But…is that enough?” she asked him. “Well, yes, it turns out that it is,” he said. "

― Anne Tyler , Clock Dance

2 " I always think it’s a good sign when a man likes cats. It shows he doesn’t feel the need to be in constant control of things. "

― Anne Tyler , Clock Dance

3 " She had tried her best to be a good mother---which to her meant a predictable mother. She had promised herself that her children would never have to worry what sort of mood she was in; they would never peek into her bedroom in the morning to see how their day was going to go. She was the only woman she knew whose prime objective was to be taken for granted. "

― Anne Tyler , Clock Dance

4 " Now she settled into the dailiness of grief—not that first piercing stab but the steady, persistent ache of it, the absence that feels like a presence. "

― Anne Tyler , Clock Dance

5 " I broke my days into separate moments,” he said. “See, it’s true I didn’t have any more to look forward to. But on the other hand, there were these individual moments that I could still appreciate. Like drinking that first cup of coffee in the morning. Working on something fine in my workshop. Watching a baseball game on TV.” She thought that over. “But…” she said. He waited. “But…is that enough?” she asked him. “Well, yes, it turns out that it is,” he said. "

― Anne Tyler , Clock Dance

6 " Of course it seemed strange without Peter, but at least she could stay out as long as she liked without worrying she was neglecting him. "

― Anne Tyler , Clock Dance

7 " She was reminded of rainy days in her childhood when she would resign herself to staying in, reading or watching daytime TV, and then in the afternoon the sun would break through unexpectedly and she would think, Oh. I guess I can go outside now. Isn’t that…a good thing, I guess. "

― Anne Tyler , Clock Dance

8 " Sometimes Willa felt she’d spent half her life apologizing for some man’s behavior. More than half her life, actually. First Derek and then Peter, forever charging ahead while Willa trailed behind picking up the pieces and excusing and explaining. "

― Anne Tyler , Clock Dance

9 " It was beginning to get a bit cooler out, thank heaven. One thing she was never going to adjust to was how you needed constant air conditioning here. People were dependent upon it in the same way that space travelers were dependent upon their oxygen tanks. It seemed possible that if the electricity went off, they could actually die. When Willa thought about that too long, it made her feel kind of panicky. "

― Anne Tyler , Clock Dance

10 " But Willa knew what she meant. She had felt that way during her own childhood; she’d felt like a watchful, wary adult housed in a little girl’s body. And yet nowadays, paradoxically, it often seemed to her that from behind her adult face a child about eleven years old was still gazing out at the world. "

― Anne Tyler , Clock Dance

11 " Peter sometimes claimed - jokingly, she assumed - that the whole country should keep its clocks set to the same hour, even though that meant that some states would have to conduct their business in the dark. "

― Anne Tyler , Clock Dance

12 " The truth was that lately, she had not had quite enough happening in her life. She and her husband had moved this past fall to a golfing community outside of Tucson. (Peter was passionate about golf. Willa didn’t even know how to play.) She had had to leave behind an ESL teaching job that she loved, and she was hoping to find another one, but she hadn’t exactly looked into that yet. She seemed to be sort of paralyzed, "

― Anne Tyler , Clock Dance

13 " All last night and then this morning, she’d had a feeling like Christmas Eve. She didn’t know what to expect of this trip. She was simultaneously thrilled and scared and hopeful—such a flurry of emotions all at the same time. And then every now and then she would ask herself what on earth she thought she was doing. Also, she was grateful that Peter had decided to come along, but she worried too that he wouldn’t enjoy himself, and that this would dampen her own enjoyment "

― Anne Tyler , Clock Dance

14 " Grilled cheese sandwiches were all he knew how to make. He fried them over high heat and they gave off a sharp, salty smell that Willa had learned to associate with their mother’s absences—her sick headaches and her play rehearsals and the times she slammed out of the house. "

― Anne Tyler , Clock Dance

15 " But what helped more was to walk down a crowded sidewalk sometimes, or through a busy shopping mall, and reflect that almost everyone there had suffered some terrible loss. Sometimes more than one loss. Many had lost their dearest loves, but look at them: they were managing. They were putting one foot in front of the other. Some were even smiling.
It could be done. "

― Anne Tyler , Clock Dance

16 " She wasn’t always angry. She had lots of good days. "

― Anne Tyler , Clock Dance

17 " When she grew up she was going to marry a man who came from a big, close, jolly family. He would get along with all of them—he’d be the same kind of man her father was, "

― Anne Tyler , Clock Dance

18 " Thinking time,” their father called it. Their mother would shout at him and stamp her foot, or slap Willa in the face (such a stinging, shameful experience, being slapped in the face—so scary to the person’s eyes), or shake Elaine like a Raggedy Ann, "

― Anne Tyler , Clock Dance

19 " My wife used to say that her idea of hell would be marrying Ghandi," Ben said ... "Think about it: Ghandi was always the good one. Everyone else looked so rude and loud and self-centered by comparison. "

― Anne Tyler , Clock Dance

20 " Which was how she often did after flare-ups—pretending nothing had happened. "

― Anne Tyler , Clock Dance