Liane Moriarty Quotes & Sayings

She was a far better mother when she had an audience. — Liane Moriarty

How could she not be with someone who shared such a major chunk of her life? — Liane Moriarty

Just because a marriage ended didn't mean that it hadn't been happy at times. — Liane Moriarty

What are you babbling on about, woman? sighed Chloe. She'd picked this phrase up from her father and imitated his weary tone perfectly. They'd made the mistake of laughing the first time she did it, so she'd kept it up, and said it just often enough, and with perfect timing, so that they couldn't help but keep laughing. — Liane Moriarty

Dear Tess, she read. This is probably a silly gift for a girl. I never did know the right thing to buy you. I was trying to think of something that would help when you're feeling lost. I remember feeling lost. It was bloody awful. But I always had you. Hope you find your way, Love Dad. — Liane Moriarty

Pandora. Zeus sends her off to marry Epimetheus, a not especially bright man she's never even met, along with a mysterious covered jar. Nobody tells Pandora a word about the jar. Nobody tells her not to open the jar. Naturally, she opens the jar. — Liane Moriarty

Apparently Alice's CT scan was 'unremarkable', which made her feel ashamed of her mediocrity. It reminded her of her school reports with every single box ticked 'Satisfactory' and comments like, 'A quiet student. Needs to contribute more in class.' They may as well have just come right out and written across the front, 'So boring, we don't actually know who she is.' Elisabeth's reports had some boxes ticked 'Outstanding' and others ticked 'Below Standard' and comments like, 'Can be a little disruptive.' Alice had yearned to be a little disruptive, but she couldn't work out how you got started. — Liane Moriarty

They would think she was savoring the taste (blueberries, cinnamon, cream-excellent), but she was actually savoring the whole morning, trying to catch it, pin it down, keep it safe before all those precious moments became yet another memory. — Liane Moriarty

But I feel ugly, because one man said it was so, and that made it so. It's pathetic. — Liane Moriarty

he pays money to lift weights at the gym, so why not lift a few boxes for free? Have — Liane Moriarty

You're having one of those days of accumulating misery when you argue violently with someone in a position of power: a bank teller, a dry cleaner, a three-year-old. — Liane Moriarty

It was like I woke up when he was born. It was like he had nothing to do with that night. — Liane Moriarty

The problem is that Sophie would't want to date the sort of man who would want to date her. — Liane Moriarty

She wanted to hug him and at the same time she kind of wanted to slap him. — Liane Moriarty

There is no special protection when you cross that invisible line from your ordinary life to that parallel world where tragedies happen. It happens just like this. You don't become someone else. You're still exactly the same. Everything around you still smells and looks and feels exactly the same. — Liane Moriarty

How horrible it was to be despised. To feel yourself to be despicable. — Liane Moriarty

Oh, come on now, she said mildly, as a car suddenly pulled into the lane in front of her. She lifted her hand to toot the horn and then didn't bother. Note how I didn't scream and yell like a mad person, she thought for the benefit of that afternoon's psychotic truck driver, just in case he happened to have stopped by to read her mind. — Liane Moriarty

They were sitting on the couch chatting politely with me, not touching, or so it seemed, except that I happened to glance down and I saw that their hands were lying next to each other on the couch, and that Nick was caressing Alice's little finger with his own. I remember being shocked by a feeling of pure envy. I wanted to be Alice, young and lovely, feeling the secret caress of a handsome boy's fingertip. — Liane Moriarty

It drove her to distraction the way women wanted to bond over self-hatred. — Liane Moriarty

It was so strange to be in a state of intense conflict with a person she barely knew. — Liane Moriarty

The world, right this very moment people were suffering unimaginable atrocities and you couldn't close your heart completely, but you couldn't leave it wide open either, because otherwise how could you possibly live your life, when through pure, random luck you got to live in paradise? You had to register the existence of evil, do the little that you could, and then close your mind and think about new shoes. — Liane Moriarty

Cecelia turned her gaze away from the girls and looked at the shimmer blue of their kidney shaped swimming pool, with its powerful underwater light, the perfect symbol of suburban bliss, except for that strange intermit sound like a baby choking that was coming from the pool filter. — Liane Moriarty

The children had become wriggly and giggly, almost as if they were drunk. They seemed unable to sit still. They were sliding of their chairs, constantly knocking cutlery onto the floor, and talking in high-pitched voices over the top of one another. Alice didn't know if this was normal behavior or not. It wasn't exactly relaxing. Nick had his jaw clenched, as if this dinner were a horrible medical procedure he had to endure. — Liane Moriarty

Sure it all seemed a little silly now but all the old antipathies about unfair penalties were still there just beneath the surface. — Liane Moriarty

How could she explain to Felicity that her anxiety was like a strange, mercurial little pet she was forced to look after? Sometimes it was quiet and pliable; other days it was crazy, running around in circles, yapping in her ear. — Liane Moriarty

Most of Cecilia's friends were talkers. Their voices overlapped in their desperation to tell their stories. I've always hated vegetables . . . The only vegetable my child will eat is broccoli . . . My kid loves raw carrots . . . I love raw carrots! You had to jump right in without waiting for a pause in the conversation, because otherwise you'd never get your turn. But women like Tess didn't seem to have that need to share the ordinary facts of their lives, and that made Cecilia desperate to know them. Does her kid like broccoli? she'd — Liane Moriarty

It's her bed," Madeline said. "I don't mind if she takes it." She said it to hurt Abigail, to hurt her back, to show that she didn't care that Abigail was moving out, that she would now come to visit on weekends, but her real life, her real home would be somewhere else. But Abigail wasn't hurt at all. She was just pleased she was getting the bed. "Hey, — Liane Moriarty

Bonnie is so 'calm,' you see. The opposite of me. She speaks in one of those soft . . . low . . . melodious voices that make you want to punch a wall. — Liane Moriarty

I never believed it. That day in the Port-a-loo, while the world's largest lemon meringue pie baked, I was convinced I was having my last miscarriage. But then the bleeding stopped. It was just "spotting," as the medical world cheerily calls it. A spot of rain. A spot of bother. But even when the spotting finally stopped, I didn't believe I was having a baby. — Liane Moriarty

Oh, that feeling of hopeless grief and just wanting the pain to stop. — Liane Moriarty

Samantha: That Harper is so up herself. Of course it could have happened at a private school. And Abigail's intentions were so noble! It's just that fourteen-year-old girls are stupid. Poor Madeline. She blamed Nathan and Bonnie, although I don't know if that was fair. — Liane Moriarty

That was the day Alice Mary Love went to the gym and carelessly misplaced a decade of her life. — Liane Moriarty

But then she just got tired of hating him and started loving him again. It was easier. — Liane Moriarty

Every day is a gift, Jake. Of course sometimes it's a really horrible gift that you don't want. — Liane Moriarty

You think terrible things happened on the battlefields, but terrible things happened in ordinary suburban homes. — Liane Moriarty

I can't be in the same room as you right now." She hopped out of bed, taking the iPad with her. "Be ridiculous, then," said Ed. — Liane Moriarty

even when the spotting finally stopped, I didn't believe I was having a baby. Even when every ultrasound was normal. Even when I could feel the baby kicking and rolling, even when I was going to prenatal classes, choosing a crib, washing the baby clothes, and even when they were telling me, Okay, you can push now, I still didn't believe I was having a baby. Not an actual baby. Until she cried. And I thought, That sounds like a real newborn baby. And — Liane Moriarty

source of profound irritation. "Ed, mate! And little, hmmm . . . It's your first day at school too, isn't it?" Nathan could never be bothered to remember Madeline's children's names. He held up his palm for a high five with Fred. "Gidday, champ." Fred betrayed her by high-fiving him back. Nathan kissed — Liane Moriarty

If her back had ever hurt like this when she was twenty she would have been hysterical, demanding painkillers and cups of tea in bed, but she has found that nobody is especially surprised to hear you're in pain when you're in your eighties. You might find it astonishing, but nobody else does. — Liane Moriarty

We were so happy. — Liane Moriarty

Whoever was doing the crossword was halfway through — Liane Moriarty

He got Alice, the way we did, or maybe even more so than us. He made her more confident, funnier, smarter. He brought out all the things that were there already and let her be fully herself, so she seemed to shine with this inner light. — Liane Moriarty

Those we love don't go away, they sit beside us every day. — Liane Moriarty

Seven minutes. Her mistake could be measured in minutes. Marla was the only person who knew. Ed never knew. — Liane Moriarty

It's easy to think the minefield wasn't that bad once you're safely watching other people get blown up. — Liane Moriarty

Parents take far too much notice of their children these days. Bring back the good old days of benign indifference, I reckon. — Liane Moriarty

Chloe handed a pink envelope to Madeline. "Can you keep this, Mummy? It's an invitation to Amabella's party. You have to come dressed as something starting with A. I'm going to dress up as a princess." She ran off. — Liane Moriarty

They had invited Dakota to Holly's birthday party! Hopefully they'd remember to feed their guests. He'd take some food along, just in case... She said only Dakota was invited to the birthday party, not them. She said it was probably a 'drop off party.' He didn't know what she was talking about. He would take meatballs, maybe. A case of champagne. — Liane Moriarty

Finally she stopped resisting and called a truce. Young Alice was allowed to stay as long as she didn't eat too much chocolate. — Liane Moriarty

The medication, the hormones and the relentless frustrations of our lives make us bitchy and you're not allowed to be bitchy in public or people won't like you. — Liane Moriarty

Try not to saddle yourself with too distinct a personality too early in life. It might not suit you later on. — Liane Moriarty

I think I'm falling for a red herring here, — Liane Moriarty

It didn't take Celeste long to realize that this was going to be the sort of book club where the book was secondary to the proceedings. She felt a mild disappointment. She'd been looking forward to talking about the book. She'd even, embarrassingly, prepared for book club, like a good little lawyer, marking up a few pages with Post-it notes and writing a few pithy comments in the margins. — Liane Moriarty

I understand now that desperate, clumsy desire to make people feel better - even when you know perfectly well that nothing will. — Liane Moriarty

Some secrets are meant to stay secret forever. — Liane Moriarty

It had never crossed her mind that sending your child to school would be like going back to school yourself. — Liane Moriarty

A glittery girl. Older than Jane but definitely still glittery. All her life Jane had watched girls like that with scientific interest. Maybe a little awe. Maybe a little envy. They weren't necessarily the prettiest, but they decorated themselves so affectionately, like Christmas trees, with dangling earrings, jangling bangles and delicate, pointless scarves. They — Liane Moriarty

The time there was only the one warm-up room for everyone, a room so astonishingly hot and airless and noisy, so crowded with extraordinarily talented-seeming musicians, that everything had begun to spin like a merry-go-round, and a French cellist had reached out a languid hand to save Clementine's cello as it slipped from her grasp. (She was a champion fainter.) The — Liane Moriarty

A thank-you card," repeated Alice. "Yes. I know, I know, it's teaching them good manners and everything, but I sort of hate those thank-you cards. I always imagine the kids groaning and having to be forced into writing them. It makes me feel like an elderly aunt. — Liane Moriarty

The middle-aged woman she would have become, so sure of herself and her place in the world, bossy and loving, condescending and impatient with her dear old mum, — Liane Moriarty

If parents had children who were good sleepers, they assumed this was due to their good parenting, not good luck. — Liane Moriarty

Today would be perfect in every way. The Facebook photos wouldn't lie. So much joy. Her life had so much so joy. That was an actual verifiable fact. — Liane Moriarty

The first truly autumnal day of the new season. Soft, pretty scarves looped necks, skinny jeans encased skinny and not-so-skinny thighs, spike-heeled boots tapped across the playground. — Liane Moriarty

Over the years, 'organized' seemed to have become her most defining characteristic. It was like she was a minor celebrity with this one claim to fame. It was funny how once it became a thing that her family and friends commented on and teased her about, it seemed to perpetuate itself, so that her life was now extraordinarily well organized ... — Liane Moriarty

Or maybe temporary insanity is just an excuse for inexcusable behavior. — Liane Moriarty

Now it seemed like she could twist the lens on her life and see it from two entirely different perspectives. The perspective of her younger self. Her younger, sillier, innocent self. And her older, wiser, more cynical and sensible self. — Liane Moriarty

Her mother could always charm her, even at the worst times. Just when Erika thought she was done, that was it, she could take no more, her mother charmed her back into loving her. Her — Liane Moriarty

Alice would give anything, anything at all, to be lying in bed with Nick, waiting for a cup of tea. Maybe he got sick of making her cups of tea? Was that it? Had she taken him for granted? Who did she think she was, some sort of princess, lying in bed waiting for cups of tea to be delivered. — Liane Moriarty

She has become so irritatingly optimistic ever since she took up salsa dancing. — Liane Moriarty

This was how it could be done. This was how you lived with a terrible secret. You just did it. You pretended everything was fine. You ignored the deep, cramplike pain in your stomach. You somehow anesthetized yourself so that nothing felt that bad, but nothing felt that good either. — Liane Moriarty

Building your dream home is a fast-track to divorce, — Liane Moriarty

She felt hot liquid anger suddenly cool and harden into something powerful and immovable. — Liane Moriarty

How in the world had Bonnie managed to get Madeline's ex-husband out of bed at that time of morning to go to work in a homeless shelter? Nathan wouldn't get up before eight a.m. in the ten years they'd been together. Bonnie must give him organic blow jobs. "Abigail — Liane Moriarty

Ben told me that Tom had just spoken on the mobile to Alice and according to Tom she didn't say anything about falling over at the gym and she sounded "Just like Mum except maybe ten to fifteen percent grumpier than usual." I think he's learning percentages at school right now. — Liane Moriarty

The information was like a secret weapon hidden in her pocket, which she held in the palm of her hand, caressing its contours, considering its power. — Liane Moriarty

John-Paul did not have the requisite organizational abilities to handle bigamy. He would have slipped up long ago. Turned up at the wrong house. Called one of his wives by the wrong name. He'd be constantly leaving his possessions at the other place. — Liane Moriarty

The opening bars of a new band's song comes on the radio and Sophie quickly flicks up the volume. A good omen. She's been listening out for the song for ages. She's in the early stages of falling in love with it, where she knows the chorus but not the verses and she makes up pretend words so she doesn't have to stop singing. She sings lustily, enjoying how stupid she must look to other people, with her mouth opening and shutting and her face twisting in rock-star anguish. — Liane Moriarty

You're like a favorite pillow. I have to pack you wherever I go. — Liane Moriarty

Polly had arrived in the world outraged to discover that her sisters had gotten there before her. — Liane Moriarty

One of the jobs of advertising was to give the consumer rational reasons for their irrational purchases. — Liane Moriarty

I seriously don't understand how men came to rule the world, she'd said to her sister, Bridget, this morning, after she'd told her about how John-Paul had lost his rental car keys in Chicago. It had driven Cecilia bananas seeing that text message from him. There was nothing she could do! This type of thing was always happening to John-Paul. Last time he went overseas he'd left his laptop in a cab. The man lost things constantly. Wallets, phones, keys, his wedding ring. His possessions just slid right off him. — Liane Moriarty

Even a really bad ordinary argument, where feelings were hurt, would be so much better than this permanent sense of dread. She could feel it everywhere: in her stomach, her chest, even her mouth had a horrible taste to it. What was it doing to her health? — Liane Moriarty

When you divorce someone, you divorce their whole family, Madeline had told her once. — Liane Moriarty

Doing this always calmed her. It was like imagining the protective walls of an impenetrable fortress. She — Liane Moriarty

I don't know how she feels about me, but I sort of like her. I mean, I'm sickened by her existence obviously, but I find her strangely compelling. — Liane Moriarty

The boys had always been her reason to stay, but now for the first time they were her reason to leave. She'd allowed violence to become a normal part of their life. — Liane Moriarty

Wherever she went, whatever she did, part of her mind was always imagining a hypothetical life running parallel to her actual one, — Liane Moriarty

Compulsion: one of those solid respectable psychological-sounding words to nicely wrap the truth: she was as mad as a hatter, as crazy as a bedbug. Oh, — Liane Moriarty

Not all mysteries are meant to be solved. Not all secrets are meant to be told. — Liane Moriarty

Afterward she felt seedy and sexy and disheveled and filled with despair. — Liane Moriarty

I mean a fat, ugly man can still be funny and lovable and successful," continued Jane. "But it's like it's the most shameful thing for a woman to be." "But you weren't, you're not - " began Madeline. "Yes, OK, but so what if I was!" interrupted Jane. "What if I was! That's my point. What if I was a bit overweight and not especially pretty? Why is that so terrible? So disgusting? Why is that the end of the world? — Liane Moriarty

But women like Tess didn't seem to have that need to share the ordinary facts of their lives, and that made Cecilia desperate to know them. — Liane Moriarty

He knew how the audition was going to affect their lives for the next ten weeks as she slowly lost her mind from nerves and the strain of trying to scrounge precious practice time from an already jam-packed life. No matter how much time poor Sam gave her, it would never be quite enough, because what she actually needed was for him and the kids to just temporarily not exist. She needed to slip into another dimension where she was a single, childless person. Just between now and the audition. She needed to go to a mountain chalet (somewhere with good acoustics) and live and breathe nothing but music. Go for walks. Meditate. Eat well. Do all those positive-visualization exercises young musicians did these days. She had an awful suspicion that if she were to do this in reality, she might not even miss Sam and the children that much, or if she did miss them, it would be quite bearable. — Liane Moriarty

She said that sometimes you had to be brave enough to point your life in a new direction. — Liane Moriarty

A marriage is hard work and sometimes it's a bit of a bore. It's like housework. It's never finished. You've just got to grit your teeth and keep working away at it, day after day. — Liane Moriarty

It was like someone had cheerfully suggested she run a marathon when she'd just dragged herself out of bed after suffering from the flu. — Liane Moriarty

If her mother had been observing this interaction, she'd tell Clementine she was wrong, that she needed to keep talking, to say everything that was on her mind, to communicate, to leave no possibility for misinterpretation.

If her father were here, he'd put his finger to his lips and say, "Shh."

Clementine settled for two words.

"I'm sorry," she said. — Liane Moriarty

Sometimes a girl has to stop waiting around and come up with her own fairytale ending. — Liane Moriarty

missions. A moment later she heard the sound of the television start up. The clever little thing had worked out how to use the remote control. 'Not till August,' said Lauren. 'We've got lots to sort out. Visas and so on. We'll have to find an apartment, a nanny for Jacob.' A nanny for Jacob. 'Job for me.' Rob sounded a little nervous. 'Oh, yes, darling,' said Rachel. She did try to take her son seriously. She really did. 'A job for you. In real estate, do you think?' 'Not sure yet,' said Rob. 'We'll have to see. I might end up being a house husband.' 'So sorry I never taught him how to cook,' said Rachel to Lauren, not especially sorry. Rachel had never been much interested in cooking or that good at it; it was just another chore that had to be done, like the laundry. The way people went on these days about cooking. 'That's okay,' beamed Lauren. 'We'll probably eat out a lot in New York. The city that never sleeps, — Liane Moriarty

Everyone had another sort of life up their sleeve that might have made them happy. — Liane Moriarty