“Her death hit in waves. Not a flood, but water lapping steadily at her ankles. You could drown in two inches of water. Maybe grief was the same.”
―
Brit Bennett,
The Vanishing Half
“People thought that being one of a kind made you special. No, it just made you lonely. What was special was belonging with someone else.” ― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half
“She hadn't realized how long it takes to become somebody else, or how lonely it can be living in a world not meant for you.” ― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half
“This big ol' world and we only get to go through it once. The saddest thing there is, you ask me.” ― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half
“There were many ways to be alienated from someone, few to actually belong.” ― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half
“A town always looked different once you'd returned, like a house where all the furniture had shifted three inches. You wouldn't mistake it for a stranger's house but you'd keeping banging your shins on the table corners.” ― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half
“The only difference between lying and acting was whether your audience was in on it, but it was all a performance just the same.” ― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half
“Grief was not a line, carrying you infinitely further from loss. You never knew when you would be sling-shot backward into its grip. —” ― Brit Bennett, The Mothers
“That was the thrill of youth, the idea that you could be anyone. That was what had captured her in the charm shop, all those years ago. Then adulthood came, your choices solidifying, and you realize that everything you are had been set in motion years before. The rest was aftermath.” ― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half
“The weight of what has been lost is always heavier than what remains.” ― Brit Bennett, The Mothers
“When you married someone, you promised to love every person he would be. He promised to love every person she had been. And here they were, still trying, even though the past and the future were both mysteries.” ― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half
“Reckless white boys became politicians and bankers, reckless black boys became dead.” ― Brit Bennett, The Mothers
“A body could be labeled but a person couldn’t, and the difference between the two depended on that muscle in your chest. That beloved organ, not sentient, not aware, not feeling, just pumping along, keeping you alive.” ― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half
“Oh girl, we have known littlebit love. That littlebit of honey left in an empty jar that traps the sweetness in your mouth long enough to mask your hunger. We have run tongues over teeth to savor that last littlebit as long as we could, and in all our living, nothing has starved us more.” ― Brit Bennett, The Mothers
“In the dark, you could never be too black. In the dark, everyone was the same color.” ― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half
“You could drown in two inches of water. Maybe grief was the same.” ― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half
“Suffering pain is what made you a woman. Most of the milestones in a woman’s life were accompanied by pain, like her first time having sex or birthing a child. For men, it was all orgasms and champagne.” ― Brit Bennett, The Mothers
“It was strange learning the contours of another’s loneliness. You could never know it all at once; like stepping inside a dark cave, you felt along the walls, bumped into jagged edges.” ― Brit Bennett, The Mothers
“But we were girls once, which is to say, we have all loved an ain’t-shit man. No Christian way of putting it. There are two types of men in the world: men who are and men who ain’t about shit.” ― Brit Bennett, The Mothers
“People thought that being one of a kind made you special. No, it just made you lonely. What was special was belonging with someone else.” ― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half
“She hadn't realized how long it takes to become somebody else, or how lonely it can be living in a world not meant for you.” ― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half
“This big ol' world and we only get to go through it once. The saddest thing there is, you ask me.” ― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half
“There were many ways to be alienated from someone, few to actually belong.” ― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half
“A town always looked different once you'd returned, like a house where all the furniture had shifted three inches. You wouldn't mistake it for a stranger's house but you'd keeping banging your shins on the table corners.” ― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half
“The only difference between lying and acting was whether your audience was in on it, but it was all a performance just the same.” ― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half
“Grief was not a line, carrying you infinitely further from loss. You never knew when you would be sling-shot backward into its grip. —” ― Brit Bennett, The Mothers
“That was the thrill of youth, the idea that you could be anyone. That was what had captured her in the charm shop, all those years ago. Then adulthood came, your choices solidifying, and you realize that everything you are had been set in motion years before. The rest was aftermath.” ― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half
“The weight of what has been lost is always heavier than what remains.” ― Brit Bennett, The Mothers
“When you married someone, you promised to love every person he would be. He promised to love every person she had been. And here they were, still trying, even though the past and the future were both mysteries.” ― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half
“Reckless white boys became politicians and bankers, reckless black boys became dead.” ― Brit Bennett, The Mothers
“A body could be labeled but a person couldn’t, and the difference between the two depended on that muscle in your chest. That beloved organ, not sentient, not aware, not feeling, just pumping along, keeping you alive.” ― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half
“Oh girl, we have known littlebit love. That littlebit of honey left in an empty jar that traps the sweetness in your mouth long enough to mask your hunger. We have run tongues over teeth to savor that last littlebit as long as we could, and in all our living, nothing has starved us more.” ― Brit Bennett, The Mothers
“In the dark, you could never be too black. In the dark, everyone was the same color.” ― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half
“You could drown in two inches of water. Maybe grief was the same.” ― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half
“Suffering pain is what made you a woman. Most of the milestones in a woman’s life were accompanied by pain, like her first time having sex or birthing a child. For men, it was all orgasms and champagne.” ― Brit Bennett, The Mothers
“It was strange learning the contours of another’s loneliness. You could never know it all at once; like stepping inside a dark cave, you felt along the walls, bumped into jagged edges.” ― Brit Bennett, The Mothers
“But we were girls once, which is to say, we have all loved an ain’t-shit man. No Christian way of putting it. There are two types of men in the world: men who are and men who ain’t about shit.” ― Brit Bennett, The Mothers
