Kathy

“The problem with retrospect is it never shows up beforehand.”
― Monica Wood, How to Read a Book

“Harriet Larson had said yes all her life. To her parents. To her teachers. To Lou and the girls. To Corinne and Sophie. She'd said yes to shopkeepers, to doctors, to car salesmen, to Girl Scout leaders, to Mormons on rounds, to hairdressers who wouldn't let her go gray. She'd been raised to say yes, to agree and approve and adapt and accommodate, to step aside as the architect of her own happiness. After Lou's death she vowed to say yes only when that yes belonged to her, solely to her. And so: Yes to college. Yes to teaching. Yes to retirement. Yes without being asked; yes before being asked. Yes to Book Club. Yes to Violet. Yes to the filthy and broken Dawna-Lynn, for whom she was searching out a bright, becoming color from a closet too full of beige. These yesses felt like power, like gateways, like love.
"Frank." She laid her cheek on his chest. "Yes.”
― Monica Wood, How to Read a Book

“Intuition is the opposite of science.”
― Monica Wood, How to Read a Book

“Harriet," he said, "would you care for a glass of wine?"
"Oh, Jesus God, yes."
"I didn't ask before because I thought it might be, uh, inappropriate for the occasion."
"I can think of no occasion," Harriet said, "including funerals, nuclear summits, and parent-teacher meetings, that could not be vastly improved by a full-bodied red.”
― Monica Wood, How to Read a Book