33 Quotes by Mary Beth Keane

Speaking was a habit she'd gotten into years ago, in the distant past, and now that she'd stopped she felt no desire to start again. It was pointless anyway - all the blah-blah-blabbing and, still, no one understood each other.

At some point Lena realized that she could go a whole day without speaking or hearing a single human voice if she kept the TV turned off.

You take the baby out every day no matter the weather and you walk around the neighborhood for one hour... Look around at the trees, at the nice even sidewalks, wave to your neighbors and think of what a lucky girl you are, what a lucky baby she is... Francis is a good man. Repeat it to yourself again and again. Go into the shops, tell them your name and that you just moved here, everybody loves a new baby. Lena felt the temptation to cry.

They’d both learned that a memory is a fact that has been dyed and trimmed and rinsed so many times that it comes out looking almost unrecognizable to anyone else who was in that room or anyone who was standing on the grass beneath that telephone pole.

They’d both learned that a memory is a fact that’s been dyed and trimmed and rinsed so many times that it comes out looking almost unrecognizable to anyone else who was in that.

But things are meant to change, Peter said. Because life changes and people change. As long as we change together, we’re okay.

Kate thought about their wedding day as a conclusion to something, where he thought about it as a beginning. Rising action versus falling action. They were reading different books.

The thing is, Peter, grown-ups don’t know what they’re doing any better than kids do. That’s the truth.

When you were born, I used to daydream about leaving you with Mrs. Shefflin – remember Mrs. Shefflin? My idea was I’d ask her to watch you while I ran out for a carton of milk and then I’d never come back.” “What? Really?” Lena said, her tears instantly drying. It was so unexpected she started laughing. Then she was laughing so hard she was crying again.