Iris Schouten

“She chokes up again, but she forces herself onward. “Your dad understood you.” Her voice squeaks, and her shoulders lift in a slight shrug. “He understood the things you love. He understood your sense of humor. He had access to pieces of you I couldn’t get to, and I was okay with that, mostly. But when he died—god, Alice, I haven’t been able to figure out how to be what you need. He always knew the right thing to say to you. He always knew how to cheer you up, or how to talk you down. “And I want to be a good parent to you, but I can’t be him.” “I don’t need you to be him,” I promise tearily. “You deserve to have him,” she says. “You don’t know how many times I’ve wished it had been me instead.” “Mom.” My heart cracks, shatters. I wrap my arms around her again. “Don’t say that.”
― Emily Henry, Great Big Beautiful Life

“I see him laugh but can’t hear it, and I feel robbed of the sound.”
― Emily Henry, Funny Story

“Love happens over breakfast.’ ” “It’s just something Cormack said when we were first married. Romance happens over dinner. The candlelight, the wine.” “Everyone looks a lot better than they usually do,” Cormack says and laughs. Reenie rolls her eyes. “Well, yes,” she says. “That’s the romance of it. But at breakfast everything’s just as it is, in the light of day. No one wears lipstick to breakfast. And this is where you talk about your day and the part of the roof that might leak this fall. You bring your real self to breakfast.”
― Annabel Monaghan, It's a Love Story

“It’s important that I play this cool. Fact: I have never played it cool in my life.”
― Emily Henry, Great Big Beautiful Life