What Alice Forgot QUOTES

101 " But Nick was Nick. He knew what she meant when she said, “Oh my dosh.” They could look at an old photo together and travel back in time to the same place; they could begin a million conversations with “Do you remember when . . .”; they could hear the first chords of an old song on the radio and exchange glances that said everything without words. Each memory, good and bad, was another invisible thread that bound them together, even when they were foolishly thinking they could lead separate lives. It was as simple and complicated as that. "

― Liane Moriarty , What Alice Forgot

102 " And Jeremy, her earnest face crumpled. She looked so embarrassed, I felt like I’d kicked a kitten. She was falling all over herself to apologize. "

― Liane Moriarty , What Alice Forgot

103 " I knew there is nothing more patronizing to an Infertile than to hear a new mother complaining, as if that will make you feel better for not having your own baby. It’s like telling a blind person, “Oh, sure, you get to see mountains and sunsets, but there are also rubbish dumps and pollution! Terrible! "

― Liane Moriarty , What Alice Forgot

104 " She wanted to see it clearly, to understand that it wasn’t all black, or all white. It was a million colors. And "

― Liane Moriarty , What Alice Forgot

105 " It wasn’t just that her memories of the last ten years were back. It was that her true self, as formed by those ten years, was back. As seductive as it might have been to erase the grief and pain of the last ten years, it was also a lie. Young Alice was a fool. A sweet, innocent fool. Young Alice hadn’t experienced ten years of living. "

― Liane Moriarty , What Alice Forgot

106 " had to run out of a cinema because the smell of the woman’s perfume sitting next to me (Opium) combined with her popcorn made me retch. "

― Liane Moriarty , What Alice Forgot

107 " She was floating, arms outspread, water lapping her body, breathing in a summery fragrance of salt and coconut. There was a pleasantly satisfied breakfast taste in her mouth of bacon and coffee and possibly croissants. She lifted her chin and the morning sun shone so brightly on the water, she had to squint through spangles of light to see her feet in front of her. Her toenails were each painted a different color. Red. Gold. Purple. Funny. The nail polish hadn’t been applied very well. Blobby and messy. Someone else was floating in the water right next to her. Someone she liked a lot, who made her laugh, with toenails painted the same way. The other person waggled multicolored toes at her companionably, and she was filled with sleepy contentment. Somewhere in the distance, a man’s voice shouted, “Marco?” and a chorus of children’s voices cried back, “Polo!” The man called out again, “Marco, Marco, Marco?” and the voices answered, “Polo, Polo, Polo!” A child laughed; a long, gurgling giggle, like a stream of soap bubbles. A voice said quietly and insistently in her ear, “Alice?” and she tipped back her head and let the cool water slide silently over her face. Tiny dots of light danced before her eyes. Was it a dream or a memory? “I don’t know!” said a frightened voice. “I didn’t see it happen!” No need to get your knickers in a knot. The dream or memory or whatever it was dissolved and vanished like a reflection on water, and instead fragments of thought began to drift through her head, as if she were waking up from a long, deep sleep, late on a Sunday morning. Is cream cheese considered a soft cheese? It’s not a hard cheese. It’s not . . . . . . hard at all. So, logically, you would think . . . . . . something. Something logical. Lavender is lovely. Logically lovely. Must prune back the lavender! I can smell lavender. No, I can’t. Yes, I can. That’s when she noticed the pain in her head for the first time. It hurt on one side, a lot, as if someone had given her a good solid thwack with a baseball bat. Her thoughts sharpened. What was this pain in the head all about? "

― Liane Moriarty , What Alice Forgot

108 " An attractive, elegant, slim woman. The sort of woman she never thought it was possible for her to be. She had become one of those women, those other women, who had seemed too perfectly put together to be real. "

― Liane Moriarty , What Alice Forgot

109 " Life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quickly you hardly catch it going’ Tennessee Williams "

― Liane Moriarty , What Alice Forgot

110 " a quote from Leonardo da Vinci: “Obstacles cannot crush me; every obstacle yields to stern resolve. "

― Liane Moriarty , What Alice Forgot

111 " even when the spotting finally stopped, I didn’t believe I was having a baby. Even when every ultrasound was normal. Even when I could feel the baby kicking and rolling, even when I was going to prenatal classes, choosing a crib, washing the baby clothes, and even when they were telling me, Okay, you can push now, I still didn’t believe I was having a baby. Not an actual baby. Until she cried. And I thought, That sounds like a real newborn baby. And "

― Liane Moriarty , What Alice Forgot

112 " I never believed it. That day in the Port-a-loo, while the world’s largest lemon meringue pie baked, I was convinced I was having my last miscarriage. But then the bleeding stopped. It was just “spotting,” as the medical world cheerily calls it. A spot of rain. A spot of bother. But even when the spotting finally stopped, I didn’t believe I was having a baby. "

― Liane Moriarty , What Alice Forgot

113 " single spotlight revealed Alice’s "

― Liane Moriarty , What Alice Forgot

114 " Instead of remembering grief and devastation, she remembered the terrible injustice of the cheesecake. "

― Liane Moriarty , What Alice Forgot

115 " Me entran ganas de gritar a la mujer que era yo hace unos años: <<¡Quedarte embarazada no significa que vayas a tener un hijo, idiota!>> "

― Liane Moriarty , What Alice Forgot

116 " now I just assume that it won’t work, and that if it does work, I’ll lose it anyway. This is meant to protect me, although it doesn’t, because somehow the hope sneakily finds its way in. I’m never aware of the hope until it’s gone, whooshed away like a rug pulled from under my feet, each time I hear another “I’m sorry. "

― Liane Moriarty , What Alice Forgot

117 " She was experiencing all those familiar symptoms of a relationship breakup. The nausea. The sensation of something huge and hard lodged in the center of her chest. That trembly, teary feeling. She wasn’t supposed to ever have to feel this way again. Breakups were meant to be something from her youth. Painful memories. Actually not that painful, because it was sort of nice to look fondly back at her younger self and think, “Oh you silly thing, crying over that jerk.” This was meant to be her grown-up relationship. The one that lasted forever. "

― Liane Moriarty , What Alice Forgot

118 " We should have given up years ago. It’s so clear now. We should have “explored other options.” We should have adopted. We gave up years of our lives and we very nearly destroyed our marriage. Our happy ending could have and should have arrived so much sooner. And even though I adore the fact that Francesca has Ben’s eyes, I also see now that her biological connection to us is irrelevant. She is her own little person. She is Francesca. If we weren’t her “natural” parents, we would still have loved her just as much. I mean, for heaven’s sake, I named Francesca after her great-grandmother, who has no genetic connection to us at all and wasn’t even part of our lives until I was eight years old. I couldn’t love Frannie any more than I do. So there’s that. But "

― Liane Moriarty , What Alice Forgot

119 " Early love is exciting and exhilarating. It’s light and bubbly. Anyone can love like that. But love after three children, after a separation and a near-divorce, after you’ve hurt each other and forgiven each other, bored each other and surprised each other, after you’ve seen the worst and the best—well, that sort of a love is ineffable. It "

― Liane Moriarty , What Alice Forgot

120 " Obstacles cannot crush me; every obstacle yields to stern resolve.” Good one, Leonardo. But the more I think about it, the more I think that maybe I wouldn’t say anything motivational at all. It’s quite possible that I might briskly slap my hands against my knees and say, “Sounds like it’s time you gave up. "

― Liane Moriarty , What Alice Forgot