Stephen McCauley > Quotes

“From what I can tell, the chief distinguishing factor between children and adults is that children hear everything while appearing not to and adults hear nothing while pretending to listen.”
― Stephen McCauley, Insignificant Others

“Among the many hypocrisies of the “religious” was the fact that they viewed god as omnipotent, but treated Him like a ventriloquist’s dummy by putting their words and crackpot beliefs, prejudices, and unfounded biases into His mouth whenever it suited their purposes.”
― Stephen McCauley, My Ex-Life

“All couples start off as Romeo and Juliet and end up as Laurel and Hardy.”
― Stephen McCauley, My Ex-Life

“When everything looks perfectly right about a person, there’s usually something significantly wrong. They were probably in their early thirties, that awkward age when people still believe they matter and that life is going to go their way.”
― Stephen McCauley, My Ex-Life

“The only thing relationships needed in common was love—of some kind—and true love was rarely the result of a shared fondness for quilting.”
― Stephen McCauley, My Ex-Life

“Julie had always believed that even if it's the big, unexpected events (good and bad) that make life memorable and occasionally exciting, it's the small, predictable routines that hold life together and make it worth living.”
― Stephen McCauley, My Ex-Life

“We all have a central fiction about ourselves, a favored delusion about talent or untapped potential. Most of us hang on to it as if it were a lifesaver, even though the obsession with it is often the very thing that drags us down and prevents us from fulfilling some lesser but more obtainable goal.”
― Stephen McCauley, Insignificant Others

“Everything had been a battle of wills, an opportunity for him to lecture her, another reason for him to correct her faulty logic or lack of information.”
― Stephen McCauley, My Ex-Life

“Why do you suppose it is... that the idea of being young again is so appealing when being young the first time around was such hell?”
― Stephen McCauley, True Enough

“Can we get something out the way”
― Stephen McCauley, My Ex-Life

“It usually turned out that the people who claim they're looking to change their lives are really looking for a way to justify making the same mistakes over and over.”
― Stephen McCauley, True Enough

“Any you’d recommend? I wouldn’t mind a lobster roll.” “I’m vegan.” This word had become ubiquitous and absurdly trendy. She supposed there were a few young women with anorexia who kept to this diet, but otherwise it had to be lip service. “I have a theory, Clarke. Want to hear it? There are no male vegans. There are men who say they are to appear more sensitive to their girlfriends or anyone else they’re hoping to lure into bed with them. Once they’re on their own, they’re in a drive-through line at Burger King.” “McDonald’s,” he said.”
― Stephen McCauley, My Ex-Life

“If you think that would stop her, you don’t much about Renata.”
― Stephen McCauley, My Ex-Life

“He'd actually had parents contact him to ask if there was anything their kids in grammar school should be doing to get ready for applying to college. "Looking for sane parents" was what he wanted to tell them.”
― Stephen McCauley, My Ex-Life

“Money is easier to dispense than affection, even for the most miserly.”
― Stephen McCauley, My Ex-Life

“The muffins were for Carol, the woman Henry had left her for. Naturally, Carol was younger. Julie knew only one man who'd betrayed his marriage for a woman older than his wife, and it was overstating it to say she knew Prince Charles.”
― Stephen McCauley, My Ex-Life

“I don’t mean to be a snob about anyone else’s taste or to suggest that my own is worth bragging about. I don’t really have taste; I have reactions to other people’s. I have opinions.”
― Stephen McCauley, Alternatives to Sex