Stewart O'Nan Quotes

Maybe he was old-fashioned, but to him a couple meant a strong bond, with positive and negative charges constantly arcing between them.

What man wanted a woman without fire, and vice-versa?

Why was he drawn to complicated women, or were all women-all people, finally-complicated?

Somewhere in this latest humiliation there was a lesson in self-reliance. He'd failed so completely that he'd become his own man again.

She had a vision of the two of them trapped on a tiny raft surrounded by miles of open water. It would be a kind of test, like surviving on a desert island-but that's what a marriage was, wasn't it? They would have to help each other or die.

I'm sorry you don't like coming back here," her mother often said, to cap whatever petty dust-up they'd had. How could Emily explain: it wasn't her mother or Kersey she'd disowned, but her earlier self, that strange, ungrateful girl who strove to be first at everything and threw tantrums when she failed.

You couldn't relive your life, skipping the awful parts, without losing what made it worthwhile. You had to accept it as a whole-like the world, or the person you loved.