Mona Simpson > Quotes

“I knew I would hate my best memory because it would prove that people could fake love or that love could end or worst of all, love was not powerful enough to change a life.”
― Mona Simpson

“And even if you hate her, can't stand her, even if she's ruining your life, there's something about her, some romance, some power. She's absolutely herself. No matter how hard you try, you'll never get to her. And when she dies, the world will be flat, too simple, reasonable, fair.”
― Mona Simpson, Anywhere But Here

“We all — in the end — die in medias res. In the middle of a story. Of many stories.”
― Mona Simpson

“He was a man too busy to flush toilets.”
― Mona Simpson, A Regular Guy

“Prologue: There are three wants which can never be satisfied: that of the rich wanting more, that of the sick, wanting something different, and that of the traveler, who says, "anywhere but here." —Ralph Waldo Emerson”
― Mona Simpson, Anywhere But Here

“Maybe she’d always wished to be beautiful and didn’t quite dare to, because she could tell that people didn’t say she was and more attention was given to other women, but she still had a frail hope that there’d been a mistake and she was after all.”
― Mona Simpson, Casebook

“Too many times I'd left him reaching for me, from a babysitter's arms. "Am I still a mother?" I asked myself... What parts of the day could I cut out and still give him enough? Paul never asked himself that. He thought he was a great dad.”
― Mona Simpson, My Hollywood

“So many things that seemed crucial and excruciatingly hard ended and then didn't matter anymore, forever after”
― Mona Simpson

“Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary? Does it improve upon the silence?”
― Mona Simpson, Casebook

“We come into the world whole, all of us, but we don't know that, don't know that life will be taking large chunks out of us, forever.”
― Mona Simpson

“The way Eli looked at her, my dad looked at the food.”
― Mona Simpson, Casebook

“These stories depressed me. Love ruined people's lives, the way our parents said drugs could.”
― Mona Simpson, Casebook

“That's what you do. You find the best angle. You crop. You edit. That's not cheating. That's love.”
― Mona Simpson, Casebook

“We come into the world whole, all of us,but we don't know that, don't know that life will be taking large chunks out of us, forever.”
― Mona Simpson, Casebook

“Then what were feelings worth? Like currency, their value depended on a sound treasury, so love from a liar was pretty worthless.”
― Mona Simpson, Casebook

“He and Susan had their first fight. I don’t believe in Valentine’s Day was what he’d said that started it. That Hallmark invented the holiday. “Hallmark’s older than I’d thought, then,” she said, “because Chaucer wrote Saint Valentine’s Day was when birds find their mates. There’s some reference in Hamlet, too, I think. And isn’t it Mother’s Day Hallmark invented? Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, they’re not things to believe in or not believe in. They don’t have a theology. They’re opportunities to make someone feel appreciated or to deny them that.”
― Mona Simpson, Commitment

“A mother's happiness; something you recognize and then forget; it didn't seem to matter much, though it spread through our bodies.”
― Mona Simpson, Casebook

“Once, Lina’s mom had come home with a pantsuit for Lina, a Theodore knockoff. Lina had stuffed it in the back of her drawer. It mattered to her not to try.”
― Mona Simpson, Commitment

“She would have loved to be able to hate her mother the way they did, with a breeziness carried by a fundamental trust in a home with a set table and dinner cooking.”
― Mona Simpson, Commitment

“Sometimes, a stage curtain parts and you see: life could be better if you had more. Usually, I think, we can get just as good a different way. But tricks, they do not always work.”
― Mona Simpson, My Hollywood

“I’m not talking about whether or not you’ll send me a card next February.” She shook her head. “I can’t be with a withholder. I won’t live with little denials.” The way she said that, it sounded like he’d proposed.”
― Mona Simpson, Commitment

“Still, Walter had never contended with their mother the way she had. He hadn’t been there for the worst of it. And their mother had always been different with him. Lina desperately wanted not to become her. Walter never for a second even considered that he could.”
― Mona Simpson, Commitment

“He thought about Lina saying she was like their mom. She was scared that it would happen to her. There was something tentative about his sister; he wasn’t like that. His mother must have somehow given him a confidence that she didn’t have herself. Still, Lina was an artist. That took courage. He’d made a bargain with life. He’d spend his time gaining the ease they’d once needed. His kids could be artists. He hoped they would be.”
― Mona Simpson, Commitment

“Walter had seen failing bodies in the convalescent homes where his mom worked. But he didn’t imagine pushing a syringe into papery skin when he thought of his future. He didn’t think about what doctors actually did. He needed some profession. He’d once walked over a lawn to a classmate’s house. (The boy’s father, whom Walter had never met, was a cardiologist.) A recently groomed dog thumped its tail against the door, which opened to a spacious room of light and warm clutter. Walter wanted that.”
― Mona Simpson, Commitment

“But would I have chosen to be Paul? I'd miss Will too much, the feel of his shins.”
― Mona Simpson, My Hollywood

“You can’t judge yourself like that,” Walter said. “This woman Larkin, she may have had a different start.”
― Mona Simpson, Commitment

“When Walter had come to see Lina’s show, five years ago, he’d taken a secret trip to see Carrie and ask her a question. He told her, without words, I’m ready now. She lived, like a graduate student, in a neighborhood that felt like a vacation. Blooming flowers. Bamboo blinds, music coming out onto the sidewalks. She kept finches in a white painted aviary and rode her bike to the university library. But she’d sent him back to his life.”
― Mona Simpson, Commitment

“interrupting each other. They decided that finding a person’s secret hope, like that woman’s to be a singer, and then praising her for what, in fact, she couldn’t do, was a way to hold her captive. If you searched for a real strength, even a pedestrian ability, like knowing how to change a tire or do dishes, and praised someone for that, she might recognize her skill and become independent. The world needed people to change tires and do dishes. A person with a skill could leave you. Whereas the only audience for the concert they’d just heard was this group of Berkeley Moonies.”
― Mona Simpson, Commitment

“The trouble with serenity is that it can turn. The trees seem to lose their souls and look again like painted scenery.”
― Mona Simpson, Anywhere But Here

“Mental problems were different, though. They smudged the sufferer. People didn’t offer food or flowers. They lowered their voices, as if discretion was a kindness.”
― Mona Simpson, Commitment