“To hell with them. Nothing hurts if you don't let it.”
―
Paula McLain,
The Paris Wife
“Books could be an incredible adventure. I stayed under my blanket and barely moved, and no one would have guessed how my mind raced and my heart soared with stories.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“It gave me a sharp kind of sadness to think that no matter how much I loved him and tried to put him back together again, he might stay broken forever.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“Sometimes I wish we could rub out all of our mistakes and start fresh, from the beginning,' I said. 'And sometimes I think there isn't anything to us but our mistakes.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“You are everything good and straight and fine and true—and I see that so clearly now, in the way you’ve carried yourself and listened to your own heart. You’ve changed me more than you know, and will always be a part of everything I am. That’s one thing I’ve learned from this. No one you love is ever truly lost.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“People belong to each other only as long as they both believe. He stopped believing.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“Why is it every other person you meet says they're an artist? A real artist doesn't need to gas on about it, he doesn't have time. He does his work and sweats it out in silence, and no one can help him at all.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“He was such an enigma, really - fierce and strong and weak and cruel. An incomparable friend and a son of a bitch. In the end, there wasn't one thing about him that was truer than the rest. It was all true.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“Not everyone out in a storm wants to be saved” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“I miss good old-fashioned honorable people just trying to make something of life. Simply, without hurting anyone else. I know that makes me a sap.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“My life was my life; I would have to stare it down, somehow, and make it work for me.” ― Paula McLain
“To marry was to say you believed in the future and in the past, too-that history and tradition and hope could stay knit together to hold you up.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“More and more I find myself at a loss for words and didn't want to hear other people talking either. Their conversations seemed false and empty. I preferred to look at the sea, which said nothing and never made you feel alone.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“But in the end, fighting for a love that was already gone felt like trying to live in the ruins of a lost city.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“I'd never met anyone so vibrant or alive. He moved like light.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“But love is love. It makes you do terribly stupid things.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“I hope we'll get lucky enough to grow old together.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“We’re all of us afraid of many things, but if you make yourself smaller or let your fear confine you, then you really aren’t your own person at all—are you? The real question is whether or not you will risk what it takes to be happy.” ― Paula McLain, Circling the Sun
“Ernest once told me that the word paradise was a Persian words that meant walled garden. I knew then that he understood how necessary the promises we made to each other were to our happiness. You couldn't have real freedom unless you knew were the walls were and tended to them. We could lean on the walls because they existed; they existed because we leaned on them.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“Books could be an incredible adventure. I stayed under my blanket and barely moved, and no one would have guessed how my mind raced and my heart soared with stories.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“It gave me a sharp kind of sadness to think that no matter how much I loved him and tried to put him back together again, he might stay broken forever.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“Sometimes I wish we could rub out all of our mistakes and start fresh, from the beginning,' I said. 'And sometimes I think there isn't anything to us but our mistakes.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“You are everything good and straight and fine and true—and I see that so clearly now, in the way you’ve carried yourself and listened to your own heart. You’ve changed me more than you know, and will always be a part of everything I am. That’s one thing I’ve learned from this. No one you love is ever truly lost.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“People belong to each other only as long as they both believe. He stopped believing.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“Why is it every other person you meet says they're an artist? A real artist doesn't need to gas on about it, he doesn't have time. He does his work and sweats it out in silence, and no one can help him at all.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“He was such an enigma, really - fierce and strong and weak and cruel. An incomparable friend and a son of a bitch. In the end, there wasn't one thing about him that was truer than the rest. It was all true.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“Not everyone out in a storm wants to be saved” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“I miss good old-fashioned honorable people just trying to make something of life. Simply, without hurting anyone else. I know that makes me a sap.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“My life was my life; I would have to stare it down, somehow, and make it work for me.” ― Paula McLain
“To marry was to say you believed in the future and in the past, too-that history and tradition and hope could stay knit together to hold you up.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“More and more I find myself at a loss for words and didn't want to hear other people talking either. Their conversations seemed false and empty. I preferred to look at the sea, which said nothing and never made you feel alone.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“But in the end, fighting for a love that was already gone felt like trying to live in the ruins of a lost city.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“I'd never met anyone so vibrant or alive. He moved like light.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“But love is love. It makes you do terribly stupid things.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“I hope we'll get lucky enough to grow old together.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
“We’re all of us afraid of many things, but if you make yourself smaller or let your fear confine you, then you really aren’t your own person at all—are you? The real question is whether or not you will risk what it takes to be happy.” ― Paula McLain, Circling the Sun
“Ernest once told me that the word paradise was a Persian words that meant walled garden. I knew then that he understood how necessary the promises we made to each other were to our happiness. You couldn't have real freedom unless you knew were the walls were and tended to them. We could lean on the walls because they existed; they existed because we leaned on them.” ― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife
