Kamy Wicoff > Quotes

“That she was now more tired and forgetful, while able to do three times what she had been able to do when she was somewhat less tired and forgetful but also stressed, guilty, grouchy, and overwhelmed, seemed a small price to pay.”
― Kamy Wicoff, Wishful Thinking

“She loved him. She did. But how could she be sure it would last? She had loved Norman so much she'd wanted to marry him, and at the time her love had been as true as thing as she'd ever known. Ten years later, she'd had to leave him to survive. It seemed impossible that both of those things could be true, and yet they were. Which made it hard, now that she was disabused of the romanticism of her youth, to imagine having a baby with someone else. What if the love she felt for Owen left her? What of Owen's feelings changed? She could not bear the though of being separated from another child, of fighting over 'access' to her baby with another adult who claimed her or him. And what would it do to her boys to take Owen into their hearts, only to see him go? They were already exposed to that risk with Dina. If Norman's new choice of partner turned out to be unreliable, fine. Norman was unreliable anyway. If hers did, she feared it would shake the boys loose from the foundation she had worked so hard to construct.
She believed it was possible to love for life. It was getting harder and harder to imagine a world with Owen in it where she would not want to be by his side. But she also knew there were no guarantees in matters of the heart. Which meant that unless Owen could produce a crystal ball and prove to her without a doubt that they would never, ever part, her fear of their relationship ending very nearly exceeded her need for it.”
― Kamy Wicoff, Wishful Thinking

“It is an extravagant gesture,' she said, turning to the torpedo, 'which is just the sort of gesture I like.”
― Kamy Wicoff, Wishful Thinking

“What had she been thinking, suggesting to Alicia, of all people, that a time-travel app was the solution to the problems of women in poverty? 'Are you talking about my community? You didn't even think highly enough of me to let me in on your little scheme, and now you think it will be God's gift to throw a bunch of poor women through a wormhole every day so they can take care of their children and collect their welfare checks at the same time? That's your solution? Time travel is easier than passing affordable child care?
Jennifer said nothing. Alicia, of course, was right. Years ago she had chosen to name the center It Takes a Village because, from the beginning, she had hated the every-person-for-herself attitude that isolated and blame so many of the residents the agency worked with. Yet she had just suggested that the answer to the multiplying burdens face by single mothers, in particular, was not for the village to gather around them, but for these women to multiply themselves instead.
The same answer, she thought, that she had applied to herself when her own burdens had seemed too much to bear.”
― Kamy Wicoff, Wishful Thinking

“Having her mother around had meant that there was someone in the world she didn’t have to pay to take care of, much less love, her children.”
― Kamy Wicoff, Wishful Thinking: A Novel