Angela Brown > Quotes

“get all wrapped up in the notion that their life has to be so big, so earth shattering, that they forget how significant a simple and quiet life can be, too. How meaningful love and commitment are in such an unpredictable world.”
― Angela Brown, Some Other Time

“For every new door we open in our lives, another one must remain closed. With each new choice we make, no matter how small it may seem at the time—to grab a coffee, to stay put a minute longer, to go home and sulk or not—we commit ourselves to a particular path. A certain destiny. And, often without ever realizing it, we commit all the people we love to this path, too.”
― Angela Brown, Some Other Time

“It was a dream you had in your twenties, Liv!” she said, cutting me off. “It wasn’t just a dream!” I shouted. “It was my whole identity. And I just abandoned it. And now I’m lost. I don’t know what it is I’m supposed to do.” “Dreams change, Liv. People change.” I took her comment as an insult. “What does that mean?” She sighed. “It means you’re already living the dream. But you’re so stuck in the past that you can’t see it.”
― Angela Brown, Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time

“Because in a world where everything is always changing, sweetheart,” Frank says, “where nothing is certain, sometimes it’s nice to have at least one thing that feels constant. To know that wherever you are in life, wherever your journey might take you, when you have this other person at your side, you’ll always feel like you’re at home.”
― Angela Brown, Some Other Time

“people get all wrapped up in the notion that their life has to be so big, so earth shattering, that they forget how significant a simple and quiet life can be, too. How meaningful love and commitment are in such an unpredictable world.”
― Angela Brown, Some Other Time

“Sometimes, you just have to sit quietly with your grief and give it room to breathe. You have to acknowledge that it is a part of you, and that it probably always will be.”
― Angela Brown, Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time

“I want to get out of my own way and finally learn to live my fucking life again.”
― Angela Brown, Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time

“Once we got through the week, the month, the school year, the holidays, the nonsense, the stress, we’d find time to do the things we longed to do. But then we never did. Life, it turned out, could wait.”
― Angela Brown, Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time

“That was the thing I’d only recently come to understand: that we aren’t born with one life, but with two. The life we live before we understand loss, and the one we finally live once we realize that, despite our many efforts, our life will ultimately end.”
― Angela Brown, Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time

“Their eyes catch, a hook to a fish.”
― Angela Brown, Some Other Time

“forced to watch pieces of her only child’s younger self die, like being a guest at a thousand funerals.”
― Angela Brown, Some Other Time

“Mothers always apologize for their children. Anytime they say the wrong thing. Anytime they act even an iota out of line. Really, though, they’re apologizing to and for themselves. I’m sorry. Am I doing this right? Is this the way she’s supposed to behave? Is this the way I’m meant to feel? This is all so much harder than I ever imagined.”
― Angela Brown, Some Other Time

“Time. That’s the problem. There’s never enough. We’re running out.”
― Angela Brown, Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time

“Why do you hang out with those women?” Marian asked. “You don’t even like them. Didn’t you tell me that more than one has a stick figure family stuck on the back of her car?” “It’s complicated,” I said. “We live on the same block.” “Three drug dealers live on my block,” Marian offered. “Should I start inviting them over for potlucks?”
― Angela Brown, Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time

“I’ve been a list maker my whole adult life. Lists have always made me feel in control, like I could easily manage any earthly calamity so long as I organized the solution into the appropriate number of bullet points.”
― Angela Brown, Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time

“I’m sorry. Please don’t judge me. Please don’t judge her. She never acts like this. She always acts like this. I don’t know why she behaves this way. I don’t know why I do, either. I’m trying. She’s trying. I’m trying. I’m trying. I’m trying.”
― Angela Brown, Some Other Time

“Andrew saw right through my bullshit. I was like a human Tootsie Pop; he always knew when I was hiding something else in my core.”
― Angela Brown, Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time

“Remember when we were in college, back when everything felt so fun? When the whole world felt possible?” I sighed. “When did life stop feeling like that?”
― Angela Brown, Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time

“We’d known each other for only a few months, but already it had felt like years. College is unique in that way. Time is compressed. Friendships are fast-tracked. One minute, you’re strangers; the next, you eat greasy takeout together every night and shower in the same hallway.”
― Angela Brown, Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time

“But that’s the thing I’ve only recently come to understand about birthdays. They’re not about presents or streamers. They’re not about parties or pictures or petite pastel candles on your cake. They’re about having a brief sense of hope. For that one day, we’re able to close the door on our mistakes and cling to the false idea that we’ll approach the next year wiser. We make wishes. We blow out candles. We tell ourselves this will be our year.”
― Angela Brown, Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time

“That is motherhood in some ways, isn’t it? The invisible pain mothers carry. The aches inside their bodies and their hearts that can never be explained or pinpointed or healed.”
― Angela Brown, Some Other Time

“Life. It never just happened in the moment; it was always three steps ahead.”
― Angela Brown, Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time

“That was the thing I was learning about death. Once you acknowledged that it was coming, you didn’t have time to feel afraid anymore.”
― Angela Brown, Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time

“Adulthood is funny. Once you hit a certain age, everyone stops talking about their pasts. I hardly knew where the women on our street had gone to college. I didn’t know their maiden names.”
― Angela Brown, Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time

“Lastly: To anyone who has a goal she keeps putting off. Stop waiting. There is no perfect time. No perfect circumstance. The time will pass anyway. Don’t put your dream off anymore. You owe it to yourself to write your own story.”
― Angela Brown, Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time

“These are the days that must happen to you . . . —Walt Whitman, “Song of the Open Road”
― Angela Brown, Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time

“There is no such thing as a perfect life. There are only perfect moments.”
― Angela Brown, Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time

“Well, when we’re young, we live more authentically. But as we get older and become closer to our deaths, our perception changes. We live in a more fearful state.” I felt everyone staring at me. “It’s ironic because it’s when we’re older—when we’re approaching death and running out of time to live—that we should embrace life. However, most of us do the opposite.” I set my book on the table. I didn’t want to speak anymore.”
― Angela Brown, Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time

“I guess that’s one thing you learn with age: the fact that our bodies and our hearts are capable of taking on so much. Birth. Death. All the events that unfold in between.”
― Angela Brown, Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time

“You know, it’s okay to be happy and to still have things about your life that you want to change.”
― Angela Brown, Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time