631 Quotes by Jojo Moyes

Louisa Clark had become, although neither of us said it, our only chance of keeping him alive.

I’ve had a very good life, Louisa. I loved my job and I worked with some wonderful people. I traveled to Paris, Milan, Berlin, London, far more than most women my age... I had my beautiful apartment and some excellent friends. You mustn’t worry about me. All this nonsense about women having it all. We never could and we never shall. Women always have to make difficult choices. But there is a great consolation in simply doing something you love.

But surely if you loved someone it was your job to stick with him? To help him through the depression? In sickness and in health, and all that?

Running had been my ex Patrick’s thing. It was like kale – one of those things you know exists and is possibly good for you but, frankly, life is always going to be too short to get stuck in.

Vicariously,’” she said slowly. “You’ll have to tell me what that means, Anthony.” The way she said his name induced a kind of intimacy. It promised something, a repetition in some future time. “It means” – Anthony’s mouth had dried – “it means pleasure gained through the pleasure of someone else.

And when it came down to it, what was the point in re-examining your sadness all the time anyway?

You know the worst thing about a man hitting you?” Margery said finally. “Ain’t the hurt. It’s that in that instant you realize the truth of what it is to be a woman. That it doesn’t matter how smart you are, how much better at arguing, how much better than them period. It’s when you realize they can always shut you up with a fist. Just like that.” She mulled over it for a Monet, then straightened up, and flashed Alice a tight smile. “Course, you know that only happens till you learn to hit back harder.

I watched relationships begin and end across those tables, children transferred between divorcees, the guilty relief of those parents who couldn’t face cooking, and the secret pleasure of pensioners at a fried breakfast. All human life came through, and most of them shared a few words with me, trading jokes or comments over the mugs of steaming tea.

And there is the bare truth of it, for her and all the women around here. Doesn’t matter how smart you are, how clever, how self-reliant – you can always be bettered by a stupid man with a gun.