Shari Lapena > Quotes

“Her thoughts speed up and become less rational; her mind makes fantastic leaps. It's not that things don't make sense to her when she's like this — sometimes they make 'more' sense. They make sense the way dreams do. It's only when the dream is over that you see how odd it all was, how it actually didn't make sense at all.”
― Shari Lapena, The Couple Next Door

“...nobody makes that much money without taking advantage of somebody. It's much easier to make money if you don't care who you hurt. If you have scruples, it's much harder to get rich.”
― Shari Lapena, The Couple Next Door

“The wife is always the last to know, right?”
― Shari Lapena, The Couple Next Door

“Everyone is faking it, all of them pretending to be something they’re not. The whole world is built on lies and deceit.”
― Shari Lapena, The Couple Next Door

“She knows that it’s not necessarily the ones who seem different that you need to be afraid of—it’s the ones who can carry off normal without anyone suspecting a thing.”
― Shari Lapena, Everyone Here Is Lying

“She knows how judgemental mothers are, how good it feels to sit in judgement of someone else.”
― Shari Lapena, The Couple Next Door

“But all fairytales are tinged with darkness.”
― Shari Lapena, Not a Happy Family

“Routines give structure to empty days.”
― Shari Lapena, Someone We Know

“learned that people will believe what they want to believe. And it’s truly frightening how easily they’ll believe it.”
― Shari Lapena, An Unwanted Guest

“One may smile, and smile, and be a villain.”
― Shari Lapena, An Unwanted Guest

“She knows she can’t survive this on her own.”
― Shari Lapena, The Couple Next Door

“when a wife goes missing, the husband is usually the prime suspect, and probably vice versa.”
― Shari Lapena, The Couple Next Door

“True psychopaths can be very convincing...”
― Shari Lapena, An Unwanted Guest

“She makes things work the best she can, but it isn’t easy. Marco”
― Shari Lapena, The Couple Next Door

“Earlier today Brigid visited her favorite shop, Knit One Purl Too. She was running out of the fabulous purple Shibui yarn she’d bought last time. The minute she walked in the door and saw all the colorful skeins of yarn bundled along the walls, almost up to the ceiling, she felt her spirits lift. So much color, so much texture—such unlimited possibilities!”
― Shari Lapena, A Stranger in the House: A Novel

“They will be judged, by the police and by everybody else. Serves them right, leaving their baby alone. She would think that, too, if it had happened to someone else. She knows how judgmental mothers are, how good it feels to sit in judgment of someone else.”
― Shari Lapena, The Couple Next Door

“Suspicion is an insidious thing; doubts have started creeping in, things that he’d previously been able to ignore.”
― Shari Lapena, A Stranger in the House

“I was crying when I fed her because I was sad about being fat and unattractive, and Cynthia—who is supposed to be a friend—had been flirting with my husband all evening.”
― Shari Lapena, The Couple Next Door

“clumsy fingers, feeling faintly guilty about going through his wife’s purse. It feels private. But this is an emergency. He dumps the contents onto the middle of their neatly made bed. Her wallet is there, her change purse, lipstick, pen, a tissue packet—it’s all there. Not an errand then. Maybe she stepped out to help a friend? An emergency of some kind? Still, she would have taken her purse with her if she was driving the car. And wouldn’t she have called him by now if she could? She could borrow someone else’s phone. It’s not like her to be thoughtless. Tom sits on the edge of the bed, quietly unraveling. His heart is beating too fast. Something is wrong. He thinks that maybe he should call the police. He”
― Shari Lapena, The Couple Next Door

“It’s much easier to make money if you don’t care who you hurt. If you have scruples, it’s much harder to get rich.”
― Shari Lapena, The Couple Next Door

“Anne remains in the living room, cradling her sleeping”
― Shari Lapena, The Couple Next Door

“Of course she didn’t deserve it. No one does, no matter how they look, or what they wear, or how they behave. This isn’t the Dark Ages.”
― Shari Lapena, What Have You Done?

“Such kindness, and such thoughtless cruelty.”
― Shari Lapena, The Couple Next Door

“Why do men always think they should be forgiven? That they only have to ask?”
― Shari Lapena, Everyone Here Is Lying

“New-fallen snow always makes her feel hopeful.”
― Shari Lapena, An Unwanted Guest

“She’s got the cold, unfeeling selfishness of a psychopath. In that, they are alike. And in her final moment, as she feels blood trickling down her neck, Marion knows that Avery has won.”
― Shari Lapena, Everyone Here Is Lying

“hell isn't imaginary; it's real. It's a real place and it's also a state of mind.”
― Shari Lapena, An Unwanted Guest

“I’m autistic, not stupid,’ the boy says bluntly. Then he proceeds to put down his drone”
― Shari Lapena, Everyone Here Is Lying

“How many ways, I think, can a girl be assaulted? I never got to live my life. I never got to live to be old enough, to become unattractive enough, to be left alone. To finally just be.”
― Shari Lapena, What Have You Done?

“Yes. I trusted Amanda," Pierce says, leaning back again in his chair. "And yet you cheated on her with your neighbour," Moen breaks in. He fixes a hard look on her. He finds her annoying, picking away at him. "That was a moment of stupidity. Becky came on to me. I shouldn't have done it. Just because I did something wrong, it doesn't mean my wife did." "Doesn't it?" Moen asks, arching an eyebrow. He doesn't like her. He doesn't like either one of them. He considers getting up and leaving. He knows he's within his rights to do so - he's here voluntarily. Moen continues to goad him. "You haven't asked who was having an affair with your wife." "Maybe because I don't want to know," Robert says bluntly. "Or maybe it's because you know already?" Webb suggests. Robert gives the detective a hostile look. "Why would you say that?" "We think she was sleeping with your neighbour, Larry Harris." He is suddenly furious, but tries to tamp down his anger. "I didn't know." "Sure, you didn't," Webb says pleasantly. "That's not why you slept with Becky Harris, is it, to get back at your wife's lover? You wouldn't do that, would you? Just like you wouldn't kill your wife.”
― Shari Lapena, Someone We Know