Home > Work > The Expats (Kate Moore, #1)
1 " Travel wasn't fun if you didn't get to see or do what you wanted; it was merely a different type of work, in a different place. "
― Chris Pavone , The Expats (Kate Moore, #1)
2 " It was impossible to understand how brief it is. It seemed like youth would last so long; it would last forever. But it's just a blink. "
3 " The best hiding spots are not the most hidden; they're merely the least searched. "
4 " And everyone's in the same situation, basically: we're all finding our separate ways, together. "
5 " People who were too outgoing made her suspicious. She couldn't help but presume that all the loud noise was created to hide quiet lies. "
6 " But she was still operating on lonely-person principles, still worried that her happiness could be wrenched away at any moment, for reasons out of her control. "
7 " This is the expat life: you never know when someone you see every day is going to disappear forever, instantly transmogrifying into a phantom. Before long you won’t be able to remember her last name, the color of her eyes, the grades that her children were in. You can’t imagine not seeing her tomorrow. You can’t imagine you yourself being one of those people, someone who one day just vanishes. But you are. "
8 " It's impossible to know which parts of the woman, if any, were real. "
9 " So my sister, she slipped through the cracks of the disaster of our family. She became her own disaster. "
10 " Once you see some things, you can never forget them. If you don't want to have to see them for the rest of your life, it's better not to look in the first place. "
11 " She understood that he had to work, and he had to travel. But what he didn't have to do was be absent even when he was present. "
12 " But all people have secrets. Part of being human is having secrets, and being curious about other people's secrets. Dirty fetishes and debilitating fascinations and shameful defeats and ill-begotten triumphs, humiliating selfishness and repulsive inhumanity. The horrible things that people have thought and done, the lowest points in their lives. "
13 " You talking about computer weaknesses?""Yes. But also human weaknesses.""Meaning what?""Meaning the types of weaknesses that make humans let down their guard. Trust people they shouldn't trust.""You're talking about manipulating people.""Yes." Dexter and Lester were staring at each other. "I guess I am. "
14 " But quitting didn't change what she'd already done. The piece of her past that she'd never be able to outrun. "
15 " They are permanent tourists, in Paris. Their life is a certain type of dream come true. "
16 " After all, she herself had done the very worst thing imaginable. And she was a good person. Wasn’t she? "
17 " Each of those photos proves a different thing. All those things add up to the truth. "
18 " A waiter visited to find out if everything was okay. A preposterous question. "
19 " But Kate was wide awake, chased by the same demon that haunted her regularly, especially when she was trying to forget it. "
20 " She needed friends, and a life, and this is how you acquired those things: by talking to strangers. Everyone was a stranger, all on equal footing in strangerhood. "
