Laura Starkey > Quotes

“… I started reading all the time when I realised that living in my own head was easier than trying to fit in.”
― Laura Starkey, The Spare Room

“However,’ Aled went on, ‘I’d consider myself lucky if she did have a “thing” for me. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that just because you don’t recognise her value, other people won’t see it. Plenty of us do, myself included.”
― Laura Starkey, The Spare Room

“I’d consider myself lucky if she did have a “thing” for me. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that just because you don’t recognise her value, other people won’t see it. Plenty of us do, myself included.”
― Laura Starkey, The Spare Room

“If she were Dobby the house-elf, she’d whack herself in the face with a frying pan right now.”
― Laura Starkey, Rachel Ryan's Resolutions

“You have kids, you love them. For who they are, not who you imagine they should be.”
― Laura Starkey, The Spare Room

“a failure to value someone who loved him for what lay beneath the less-than-perfect surface – a laser focus on the superficial that she’d never seen in him before.”
― Laura Starkey, The Spare Room

“I had it all planned out – I knew exactly how the next few years were going to go. And now … now I’m here.’ She smiled weakly and tried to look stoical. ‘Here is good,’ said Rosie. ‘Here is great, actually. But you don’t have to stay here. When you feel like your world’s blown up, it hurts – but afterwards, you don’t have to live in the place where you land.”
― Laura Starkey, The Spare Room

“Nobody does when they fall in love, Amy. That’s why it’s called falling. You don’t stroll cautiously into love via a predictable, tried-and-tested route. You don’t get a pre-booked seat on the 9.40 from London Euston and then arrive in love fifty minutes later. It’s supposed to be scary and exhilarating – like that moment where you reach the top of a roller coaster and know you’re about to go whooshing down, screaming like a loon but loving every second of it.”
― Laura Starkey, Amy Perry's Assumptions

“You will love again the stranger who was your self … Sit. Feast on your life. Derek Walcott, Love After Love”
― Laura Starkey, The Spare Room

“when are you going to stop letting life just happen to you? When are you going to start living with intention?”
― Laura Starkey, The Spare Room

“Maybe the thing I lost was heavier and more unwieldy than I thought. Perhaps I’d just got used to carrying it.”
― Laura Starkey, The Spare Room

“Love doesn’t work like other things – it’s not mathematical. When you hoard it, it withers and dies. When you give it away, your hands are free to receive and you end up with more. It comes back to you in some form, bigger and stronger, even if it’s from a source you don’t expect.”
― Laura Starkey, Amy Perry's Assumptions

“Dear lord, she was an idiot. In fairness, though, this wildly handsome stranger seemed to have had the power of speech knocked out of him by her earlier impact – and surely someone had to speak?”
― Laura Starkey, The Spare Room

“He’s mistaken having an amazing, supportive girlfriend for someone who’s weighing him down or hampering his potential.”
― Laura Starkey, The Spare Room

“uttering the words aloud had lifted a burden she hadn’t even known she was carrying.”
― Laura Starkey, The Spare Room

“Yeah. Like, I’ve been knocked down and something I cared about’s been taken away. But I’ll survive. And … I dunno. Maybe the thing I lost was heavier and more unwieldy than I thought. Perhaps I’d just got used to carrying it.”
― Laura Starkey, The Spare Room

“Being around people who loved her made liking, respecting and expressing herself that much easier. It was a truth she intended to hold onto.”
― Laura Starkey, The Spare Room

“Now please can we talk about something else? Literally anything else? Lately I feel like my entire life would fail the Bechdel test. Every conversation I have ends up being about men.”
― Laura Starkey, Rachel Ryan's Resolutions

“Thank you,’ Rosie said softly, as she and Aled made their way towards home. ‘What for?’ he asked, as Rosie pressed their palms together. ‘For doing what you always seem to,’ she replied. ‘For breaking my fall.”
― Laura Starkey, The Spare Room

“SDS,’ said Nisha grandly, ‘stands for Stomach Drop Sensation. It’s the magic. You know, the warm glow you get deep down in your gut that means someone’s just right for you. It comes from your heart and your body and your brain all at the same time. It’s awesome and scary, like a force of nature – like magnetism or gravity, or something.”
― Laura Starkey, Amy Perry's Assumptions

“Herrr – what, now? What does it mean?’ Rosie asked, on tenterhooks. ‘Hiraeth,’ Aled repeated. ‘It sort of means longing. Wistfulness. Yearning, tinged with nostalgia. It’s like a special, specifically Welsh homesickness, muddled with grief for lost things that can’t ever come back.”
― Laura Starkey, The Spare Room

“Rosie couldn’t think of anything sadder than leaving the world unnoticed, unremarked and unmissed.”
― Laura Starkey, The Spare Room

“She was filled with a strange, wild, unfamiliar happiness, and knew that this was love. Twice in her life she had mistaken something else for it; it was like seeing somebody in the street who you think is a friend, you whistle and wave and run after him, and he is not only not the friend, but not even very like him. A few minutes later the real friend appears in view, and then you can’t imagine how you ever mistook that other person for him. —Nancy Mitford, The Pursuit of Love”
― Laura Starkey, Rachel Ryan's Resolutions

“Rachel’s preference for comfortable clothes was only partly responsible for her usual, lazier look; she felt less exposed, less obviously fleshy, when she wore boxy sweaters and flat shoes. Also, random men catcalled at her”
― Laura Starkey, Rachel Ryan's Resolutions

“Hiraeth,’ Aled repeated. ‘It sort of means longing. Wistfulness. Yearning, tinged with nostalgia. It’s like a special, specifically Welsh homesickness, muddled with grief for lost things that can’t ever come back.”
― Laura Starkey, The Spare Room

“think the only way to avoid talking about your own loss is to do the project: focus on other people’s situations instead.’ Rachel sighed again. She couldn’t deny there was a certain logic to this. ‘And what about you?’ she asked. ‘I mean, asking to switch assignments won’t do you any favours in terms of your position here. This is a huge account and we both know you can bring it in – it would cement your celebrity status for good.’ Jack ignored her sarcasm. ‘I’m good at what I do. There’ll be plenty more chances for me to get this agency coveted, lucrative clients.’ Rachel pulled her hand out of his and crossed her arms. He was infuriatingly confident. ‘On the other hand …’ Jack said, ‘if we go ahead with Lighthouse, I’ll be with you, supporting you – and I’ll know the truth. And at least it sounds as if the content side of things won’t require too much soul-searching. It seems pretty clear Olivia Mason already knows what’s best when it comes to writing material for her new website.’ ‘True.’ Rachel stood up straighter and pulled her shoulders back a little. Jack was right: refusing to work on this account was guaranteed to raise questions about her past, not to mention her emotional stability. What kind of person was still this churned up about a bereavement – even a close one – after almost sixteen years? A loss they never breathed a word about, even to good friends? She decided to put those questions away for examination at some future, unspecified time. Then there was the risk that she’d mark herself out as difficult or unprofessional by refusing to do the work she’d been given. All things considered, it might be better to put her head down and get on with this. It would be a difficult few weeks, but ploughing on was probably preferable to publicly dredging up past pain. ‘Okay,’ Rachel said, subdued but certain. ‘Okay?’ ‘Yeah. I don’t think I have much choice here, do I? Sticking with the account seems like the lesser of two evils.’ ‘It’s going to be fine,’ Jack said bracingly. ‘And it’ll be over within a few weeks, just like the BHGH pitch. Once we get this done, we’ll be on to the next big thing – other people will be manning the account – and we never have to talk about any of this again if you don’t want to.’ Rachel nodded. Jack reached for her hand again, squeezing it and then letting go as they turned to walk back into the building. ‘Will you be all right?’ he asked as she headed towards the ladies. ‘I think so,’ she said. ‘And … I’m sorry I had a go at”
― Laura Starkey, Rachel Ryan's Resolutions

“He could make a killing narrating erotica on Audible.”
― Laura Starkey, The Spare Room

“She’d helped to ensure that didn’t happen to a person who, in a small but significant way, had mattered to her.”
― Laura Starkey, The Spare Room

“Here is great, actually. But you don’t have to stay here. When you feel like your world’s blown up, it hurts – but afterwards, you don’t have to live in the place where you land.”
― Laura Starkey, The Spare Room

“When was the last time you read a book that didn’t include explicit shagging?’ ‘You will pry my Kindle from my cold, dead hands,”
― Laura Starkey, The Spare Room