Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney Quotes & Sayings

Decades of behavioral blunders and ill-conceived marriages and businesses run amok had left next to nothing by the time Leonard was in high school. He'd wangled himself an engineering scholarship to Cornell and then a job with Dow Chemical during a time he referred to, reverently, as the Dawn of the Absorbency Revolution. — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

She was so much better at being alone; being alone came more naturally to her. She led a life of deliberate solitude, and if occasional loneliness crept in, she knew how to work her way out of that particular divot. Or even better, how to sink in and absorb its particular comforts. — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

Everyone's always on the hunt for a mirror. It's basic psychology. You want to see yourself reflected in others. Others - your sister, your parents - they want to look at you and see themselves. They want you to be a flattering reflection of them - and vice-versa. It's normal. I suppose it's really normal if you're a twin. But being somebody else's mirror? That is not your job." Nora — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

Parents are temporary custodians, keeping watch and offering love and trying to leave the child better than they found him. — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

Being somebody's looking glass is not your job. — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

This was the part she hated, the part of a relationship that always nudged her to bail, the part where someone else's misery or expectations or neediness crept into her carefully prescribed world. It was such a burden, other people's lives. — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

True patriotism, Jack believed, would have been for his fellow Americans to look inward after 9/11 and accept a little blame, admit the attacks had happened, in part, because of who they were in the world, not in spite of it. — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

She believed in second chances, sometimes more than first chances, which were wasted on youth and indiscretion. — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

I used to read three newspapers every morning. Three. — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

a long, boozy evening when her ebullience was so uncorrupted that she could shift a room's atmosphere — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

was probably mad at all of them. She wondered — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

His love for her was quiet and constant, familiar and soothing; it was almost its own thing entirely, like a worn rock or a set of worry beads, something he'd pick up and weigh in his palm occasionally, more comforting than dispiriting. — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

Right now, it felt like there was nowhere for his thoughts to alight that wasn't rife with land mines of regret or anger or guilt. — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

She supposed she could Google, but she preferred to wonder. — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

I hate wearing flats," she said, tugging her fitted white blouse a little lower. "They make me feel flat all over. — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

she understood he was lonely and that their ritual comforted him, connected the noises of her life with the silence of his — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

behind her out in their yard screeching and laughing. Their dad was yelling: "Don't eat the — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

If you want to predict a person's behavior, identify his or her incentives. Leo — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

[Jack:] 'I was twenty-four when I met Walker. Do you know I've never lived alone? I'm forty-four years old and I've never lived alone. The first few weeks Walker was gone, I didn't know what to do with myself. I'd stay in the store until late, pick up some takeout, and just watch television until I fell asleep.'
[... Melody:] 'Sounds kind of great right now.'
Jack looked at her and nodded. 'It is kind of great. That's my point. I miss Walker. I miss him terribly and I don't know what's going to happen. But for the first time ever, I'm only accountable to myself and I like it. I'm not proud of why I'm at this point, but I'm doing my best to figure it out, and I'm kind of enjoying it, parts of it anyway. — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

The cars on the block were already hidden under a sodden layer of white. People were shoveling their walks and — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

abundance proffered too soon led to lassitude and indolence, a wandering dissatisfaction. — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

This is nice,' Melody said, picking up a red leather box with a vintage watch inside.
'Yes, it is nice. It's the watch I gave Walker as a wedding gift.'
'He gave it back?'
'Actually, he sold it back to the person I bought it from who alerted me and I reacquired it.'
'I'm sorry. That sounds upsetting.'
'It was. Very. Especially since he sold the watch to buy combs for my long hair and without knowing what he had done I sold my hair to buy a leather case for this watch. — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

Neither of them even had time to scream. — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

He missed Stephanie, the ease between them, her solid and comforting presence. Sitting across from him, in the light of the fire, she blazed with health and well-being and good humor. "I — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

I'm curious," he said, "is telling someone to relax ever helpful? It's like saying 'breathe' to someone who is hyperventilating or 'swallow' to a person who's choking. It's a completely useless admonition." "I — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

They'd fallen into their old ways, accusatory and evasive, which was reassuring in a perverted way. Leo understood the nasty pull of the regrettable familiar, how the old grooves could be so much more satisfying than the looming unknown. It's addicts stayed addicts. — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

Accommodation. A different and sturdier kind of nest. AS — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

It's not your job to be anyone's mirror. — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

Leo was the only one who had never petitioned Francie for a loan using The Nest as collateral. Jack and Melody and Bea had all asked at one time that she consider an earlier dispersal, but she stubbornly refused.Until Leo's accident. — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

She was open to love, but she was best at managing her own happiness; it was other people's happiness that sunk her. — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

Jack picked a piece of mint from his glass and chewed on it for a second. "I'm curious," he said,
"is telling someone to relax ever helpful? It's like saying 'breathe' to someone who is
hyperventilating or 'swallow' to a person who's choking. It's a completely useless admonition. — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

People might not change but their incentives could. — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

People abandoned one another constantly without performing the courtesy of of actually disappearing. They left, but didn't, lurking about, a constant reminder of what could or should have been. — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

I you want people to judge you based on the inside, don't distract them from the outside. — Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney