Erin > Erin's Quotes

“A scream.
Not from Rose, who has covered her mouth. Not from Fran, smothered beneath the weight of him. The sound stops Frankie. He crawls over his daughter's body to hide in the shadow of the wall. Fran staggers away. A moment passes before he follows her inside, ducking low as if the sky will fall and crush him. Rose is reminded of a chimpanzee at the circus.
In the kitchen, Frankie is rinsing the buckle under the cold tap. He doesn't look up, but he senses Rose at the door. He runs his finger along the brass tongue.
Fetch Dolores to me, is all he will say.
But she won't. She won't let him have her.”
― Trezza Azzopardi, The Hiding Place

“Quickly again, cracking the next toe and the next, while Luca squirms in pain and lashes out her other foot against her sister. Dolores moans and shifts over to the far edge of the bed. The hands are moist from this quick work. They can feel the tremble of shock rippling under the child's skin. And then a quiet laugh, a comforting sound, a nice sound even, as if this pain is a gift brought noiselessly to a favorite daughter in the safety of darkness. Kisses the arch of the foot where the skin is softest, covers it again with the blanket and goes away.”
― Trezza Azzopardi, The Hiding Place

“Let me tell you this: if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it's not because they enjoy solitude. It's because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them.”
― Jodi Picoult, My Sister's Keeper

“If you have a sister and she dies, do you stop saying you have one? Or are you always a sister, even when the other half of the equation is gone?”
― Jodi Picoult, My Sister's Keeper

“Every man has a weakness!” he patiently explained. “I'll find theirs, I promise you.”
“Every man?”
“Yes,” he answered emphatically.
...
“What is your weakness, Brodick?” she asked.
“You.”
― Julie Garwood, Ransom

“Daydreams were dangerous because they made her wish for things she could never have.”
― Julie Garwood, Ransom

“Rhys tried to imagine what his mother would make of this subtle, incandescent creature with a mind full of books and music in her fingers. "She'll think you're too pretty. And too soft. She doesn't understand your kind of strength." Helen looked pleased. "You think I'm strong?" "I do," he said without hesitation. "You have a will like a steel blade.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Marrying Winterborne

“Do you realize that once a lass reaches womanhood that she has to deal with that sensation every day of her life? Every time she walks alone she has to look over her shoulder. Every time she relieves herself in the woods. Every time it's dark out. Every time a man moves toward her and puts her in the corner or an alcove. Every time she s alone in the stables. They must be always aware of where they are and who is around them. They have to be.”
― Keira Montclair, Jake

“You must give her the time she needs. Tell her that, tell her you will will wait for her. When she knows you will not push her, I think it will mean more to her.”
― Keira Montclair, Jake

“When you love someone, you understand how their mind works.”
― Keira Montclair, Jake

“She either loves the lad who beat her, or there's someone else there she loves.”
― Keira Montclair, Jake

“I brushed the hair back from her face. "You know I'm probably still going to fuck up from time to time. Say stupid shit. Act like a dick. Try to push you away."
She nodded. "Yes."
"Don't let me." I held her closer, pressed my lips to her forehead. "Don't let me.”
― Melanie Harlow, Only You

“My guess? Romance novels. My guess? She started reading them early. My guess? She started them at a time where they made a huge impression on her and changed her perceptions. She isn't cocooned, she pays attention and she knows there are no men out there like the men in those books she reads so she prefers being with them than trying to find someone like them which, she thinks, is a fruitless endeavor. That fantasy is far better than any reality and, you know what? She's right. Men are a pain in the ass and a lot of them are dicks who cause heartbreak. And her, a girl like Faye? Well, she knows she's the kind of girl men like that will chew up and spit out. So she's smart and she's not going to go there.”
― Kristen Ashley, Lady Luck

“We were an oldest sister growing up, and a middle sister being left behind. A youngest sister wanting to belong.”
― Heather Young

“I thought of Emily's legs hanging down as Mother carried her. I thought about the empty look on her face as Mother hugged her. I thought about never being able to play in the forest alone, or make a friend, or spend more than a few minutes by myself. I thought about not having even the privacy of my own bed at night. I thought, for the first time in a long time, about how those things had made me feel, when Mother slept with me. But to Lilith I said, "She doesn't know how good she's got it," and for a moment she and I were united once more in our disdain for our little sister, our parent's favorite, who couldn't understand how lucky she was.”
― Heather Young, The Lost Girls

“I couldn't see her, a blackness hung before my eyes, but I felt her fall back and I felt her skin beneath my nails, her bones beneath my fingers, my beloved sister, my enemy, my protector, my betrayal-(you sent him to me!)-and then she was hitting me, shoving me to the ground, kicking my stomach, my side, my ribs, my head. She was screaming (I saved you, all those years it was me, I saved you, I was the only one who saved you, nobody but me) and above it Emily was wailing, stop it! stop it! you're hurting her! Then her small body was between Lilith and me, pushing Lilith away, but Lilith's hands were on her throat, (not you, you got none of it, ever, you were safe, safe, safe, SAFE) and I couldn't get up, my ribs were in agony, the world was spinning, but I got to my knees and I shouted, "Let her go!" because Lilith was shaking Emily back and forth so that her hair whipped and flew- and she did stop, for just an instant, Emily's pale, fragile throat in her hands, and the whole dark earth held its breath.”
― Heather Young

“Then the cloud passed, and the moonlight fell again upon her angular, haunting features, and I knew that I would help her anyway. Just as I knew, with terrible clarity, what I would ask in return. I said, "You have to stay." She went absolutely still. I waited.”
― Heather Young

“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”
― Dalai Lama XIV

“I don't love you anymore", she whispered. "I don't love you at all." His throat closed. "It's all right, sweetheart. I love you enough for both of us.”
― Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Kiss an Angel

“I heard what you said. I’m not the silly romantic you think. I don’t want the heavens or the shooting stars. I don’t want gemstones or gold. I have those things already. I want…a steady hand. A kind soul. I want to fall asleep, and wake, knowing my heart is safe. I want to love, and be loved.”
― Shana Abe

“He read? Oh my God, guys that read were like unicorns. They only existed in fairy tales.”
― J. Lynn, Stay with Me

“It’s this thing I have. I’m sorry if it scared you. I feel other people’s feelings. I imagine crumbling insides and splitting hearts, goodbyes that hang in the air before they break into tiny pieces. I hear words that aren’t said, the echoes of lonely hallways and hollow footsteps. I hear sobs that soak pillowcases when all the lights are out and the world is sleeping. I carry this inside of me, all of it.

I knew you paced the floor at night, trying to walk over all the things you didn’t want me to know. But I felt every wound you ever endured when I rested against you. I felt the ache that I have, deep inside of me, on your lips. Every time we kissed, I tasted a lifetime of tangled paths and bumpy roads woven with joined hands. Love isn’t blind, you see. I felt everything you were and could be, if only you stopped hiding in the same darkness you sheltered me from. I knew who you could become if someone loved you just right.
I’m sorry if that scared you.

Just in case you were wondering, I still love you and I'll keep the lights dim.

Come home.”
― Jacqueline Simon Gunn

“On the girl's brown legs there were many small white scars. I was thinking, Do those scars cover the whole of you, like the stars and the moons on your dress? I thought that would be pretty too, and I ask you right here please to agree with me that a scar is never ugly. That is what the scar makers want us to think. But you and I, we must make an agreement to defy them. We must see all scars as beauty. Okay? This will be our secret. Because take it from me, a scar does not form on the dying. A scar means, I survived.”
― Chris Cleave, Little Bee

“Why do you look?” I mutter.

I half expect Magiano to tease me, spitting back one of his sarcastic phrases. But he doesn’t smile. “We are drawn to stories," he says in a soft voice, “and every scar carries one.” He lifts a hand and places his palm gently against the ruined side of my face, covering the scar.

I look down, embarrassed now. Instinctively, I reach up to brush some of my hair over my face—only to remember that I no longer have long locks.

“Hiding it makes you more beautiful,” Magiano says. Then he takes his hand away, exposing my scar again. “But revealing it makes you you.” He nods at me. “So wear it proudly.”
― Marie Lu, The Rose Society

“He’d spent his life being a perfect gentleman. He’d never been a flirt. He’d never been a rogue. He hated being the center of attention, but by God, he wanted to be the center of her attention. He wanted to do the wrong thing, the bad thing. He wanted to pull her into his arms and carry her to her bed. He wanted to peel every last inch of her clothing from her body, and then he wanted to worship her. He wanted to show her all the things he wasn’t sure he knew how to say.”
― Julia Quinn, Just Like Heaven

“A gentleman is simply a patient wolf.”
― Lana Turner

“Gentlemen always walk ladies home.”
― Gabriellyn Gidman, The Notes in Our Hearts

“What a loss it would be if feminism killed chivalry.”
― Joyce Rachelle

“Leni shook her head, feeling a familiar sadness creep in. She could never tell him how it felt to live with a dad who scared you sometimes and a mother who loved him too much and make him prove how much he loved her in dangerous ways. Like flirting.
These were Leni's secrets. Her burdens. She couldn't share them.
All this time, all these years, she'd dreamed of having a real friend, one who would tell her everything. How had she missed the obvious?
Leni couldn't have a real friend because she couldn't be one.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Great Alone

“I can't imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once.”
― C.S. Lewis