“We only think of the bad things that happen, rather than those that, through fortune, pass us by.”
―
Gillian McAllister,
Wrong Place Wrong Time
“Everything in parenthood feels so endless until it ceases.” ― Gillian McAllister, Wrong Place Wrong Time
“Banter can hide the worst sins. Some people laugh to hide their shame, they laugh instead of saying I feel embarrassed and small.” ― Gillian McAllister, Wrong Place Wrong Time
“How sinister it is to relive your life backward. To see things you hadn’t at the time. To realize the horrible significance of events you had no idea were playing out around you. To uncover lies told by your husband. Jen would always have said Kelly was as straight as they come. But don’t all good liars seem that way?” ― Gillian McAllister, Wrong Place Wrong Time
“The maternal habit of a lifetime, feeling guilty no matter which she chose.” ― Gillian McAllister, Wrong Place Wrong Time
“Like the hindsight paradox,” he continues, when he’s bought the doughnuts. “Everyone thinks they knew what was going to happen. They said, I knew it all along! but, actually, they would say that no matter what the outcome. Because our brains are so good at considering every possibility. We’ve known whenever anything was going to happen.” ― Gillian McAllister, Wrong Place Wrong Time
“They, mother and son, are a zipper, slowly separating as the years rush by.” ― Gillian McAllister, Wrong Place Wrong Time
“My entire life I’d been so bloody frightened of what everybody thought of me and my failed existence and yet, when I failed spectacularly – sank so much lower, so much worse than failing a degree – I realized the truth of it: nobody cares what you think as much as you do. Not even close.” ― Gillian McAllister, Anything You Do Say
“continuing her vigil. She’ll wait as long as it takes. Both phases of parenthood – the newborn years and the almost-adult ones – are bookended by sleep deprivation, though for different reasons.” ― Gillian McAllister, Wrong Place Wrong Time
“But isn’t humor a different kind of repression?” ― Gillian McAllister, Wrong Place Wrong Time
“How segmented life is. It splits so easily into friendships and addresses and life phases that feel endless but never, never last. Wearing suits.” ― Gillian McAllister, Wrong Place Wrong Time
“Sometimes,” he says gently, when she’s finished, “the emotions of living something the first time prevent us from seeing the true picture, don’t they?” He rubs at his beard. “If I could go back – the things in my life that I would just stand and truly, fully witness, if I knew how they were going to turn out . . .” ― Gillian McAllister, Wrong Place Wrong Time
“The love, true love, it should have eclipsed the shame, but there is so much judgment involved in parenthood that it never did. The shame is so easy to access, at the school gates, at the doctor's, on fucking Mumsnet. She can't let it go.” ― Gillian McAllister, Wrong Place Wrong Time
“...all the ways she's ineffectually mothered Todd crowd into her mind. Feeding him too much so he slept more, upending the bottle while watching daytime television, bored, no eye contact. That time she shouted in frustration when he wouldn't nap. How early she went back to work because her father put pressure on her; enrolling Todd in nursery so young, too young. Has she planted these seeds here? Was she a shit mother, or just a human?” ― Gillian McAllister, Wrong Place Wrong Time
“Whatever it is you’ve done, Jen thinks, I’ll never not love you.” ― Gillian McAllister, Wrong Place Wrong Time
“He made me somehow see that life didn't have to be experienced in a big way, and that happiness was small, really.” ― Gillian McAllister, No Further Questions
“Every house needs a cat,’ he said. ‘Every single one. Anyone who disagrees is wrong.” ― Gillian McAllister, Everything But The Truth
“Maybe it really is simply about books, and the things they can do for people.” ― Gillian McAllister, Anything You Do Say
“Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking. H. Jackson Brown,” ― Gillian McAllister, Everything But The Truth
“Everything in parenthood feels so endless until it ceases.” ― Gillian McAllister, Wrong Place Wrong Time
“Banter can hide the worst sins. Some people laugh to hide their shame, they laugh instead of saying I feel embarrassed and small.” ― Gillian McAllister, Wrong Place Wrong Time
“How sinister it is to relive your life backward. To see things you hadn’t at the time. To realize the horrible significance of events you had no idea were playing out around you. To uncover lies told by your husband. Jen would always have said Kelly was as straight as they come. But don’t all good liars seem that way?” ― Gillian McAllister, Wrong Place Wrong Time
“The maternal habit of a lifetime, feeling guilty no matter which she chose.” ― Gillian McAllister, Wrong Place Wrong Time
“Like the hindsight paradox,” he continues, when he’s bought the doughnuts. “Everyone thinks they knew what was going to happen. They said, I knew it all along! but, actually, they would say that no matter what the outcome. Because our brains are so good at considering every possibility. We’ve known whenever anything was going to happen.” ― Gillian McAllister, Wrong Place Wrong Time
“They, mother and son, are a zipper, slowly separating as the years rush by.” ― Gillian McAllister, Wrong Place Wrong Time
“My entire life I’d been so bloody frightened of what everybody thought of me and my failed existence and yet, when I failed spectacularly – sank so much lower, so much worse than failing a degree – I realized the truth of it: nobody cares what you think as much as you do. Not even close.” ― Gillian McAllister, Anything You Do Say
“continuing her vigil. She’ll wait as long as it takes. Both phases of parenthood – the newborn years and the almost-adult ones – are bookended by sleep deprivation, though for different reasons.” ― Gillian McAllister, Wrong Place Wrong Time
“But isn’t humor a different kind of repression?” ― Gillian McAllister, Wrong Place Wrong Time
“How segmented life is. It splits so easily into friendships and addresses and life phases that feel endless but never, never last. Wearing suits.” ― Gillian McAllister, Wrong Place Wrong Time
“Sometimes,” he says gently, when she’s finished, “the emotions of living something the first time prevent us from seeing the true picture, don’t they?” He rubs at his beard. “If I could go back – the things in my life that I would just stand and truly, fully witness, if I knew how they were going to turn out . . .” ― Gillian McAllister, Wrong Place Wrong Time
“The love, true love, it should have eclipsed the shame, but there is so much judgment involved in parenthood that it never did. The shame is so easy to access, at the school gates, at the doctor's, on fucking Mumsnet. She can't let it go.” ― Gillian McAllister, Wrong Place Wrong Time
“...all the ways she's ineffectually mothered Todd crowd into her mind. Feeding him too much so he slept more, upending the bottle while watching daytime television, bored, no eye contact. That time she shouted in frustration when he wouldn't nap. How early she went back to work because her father put pressure on her; enrolling Todd in nursery so young, too young. Has she planted these seeds here? Was she a shit mother, or just a human?” ― Gillian McAllister, Wrong Place Wrong Time
“Whatever it is you’ve done, Jen thinks, I’ll never not love you.” ― Gillian McAllister, Wrong Place Wrong Time
“He made me somehow see that life didn't have to be experienced in a big way, and that happiness was small, really.” ― Gillian McAllister, No Further Questions
“Every house needs a cat,’ he said. ‘Every single one. Anyone who disagrees is wrong.” ― Gillian McAllister, Everything But The Truth
“Maybe it really is simply about books, and the things they can do for people.” ― Gillian McAllister, Anything You Do Say
“Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking. H. Jackson Brown,” ― Gillian McAllister, Everything But The Truth
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