BOOK STARTERS VOL.25 ( THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN ) ( PAULA HAWKINS ) ( TRIGGERING THEMES )
- ❛ The holes in your life are permanent. You have to grow around them, like tree roots around concrete; you mould yourself through the gaps. ❜
- ❛ I have never understood how people can blithely disregard the damage they do by following their hearts. ❜
- ❛ There’s something comforting about the sight of strangers safe at home. ❜
- ❛ I have lost control over everything, even the places in my head. ❜
- ❛ It’s possible to miss what you’ve never had, to even mourn for it. ❜
- ❛ There’s nothing so painful, so corrosive, as suspicion. ❜
- ❛ When did you become so weak? ❜
- ❛ I don’t know where that strength went, I don’t remember losing it. I think that over time it got chipped away, bit by bit, by life, by the living of it. ❜
- ❛ Let’s be honest: women are still only really valued for two things—their looks and their role as mothers. ❜
- ❛ Sadness gets boring after a while, for the sad person and for everyone around them. ❜
- ❛ I’m playing at real life instead of actually living it. ❜
- ❛ I’ve just got to let myself feel the pain, because if I don’t, if I keep numbing it, it’ll never really go away. ❜
- ❛ I am not the girl I used to be. I am no longer desirable, I’m off-putting in some way. It’s as if people can see the damage written all over me, can see it in my face, the way I hold myself, the way I move. ❜
- ❛ Who was it that said following your heart is a good thing? It is pure egotism, a selfishness to conquer all. ❜
- ❛ It’s impossible to resist the kindness of strangers. ❜
- ❛ Sometimes I catch myself trying to remember the last time I had meaningful physical contact with another person, just a hug or a heartfelt squeeze of my hand, and my heart twitches. ❜
- ❛ I have to find a way of making myself happy, I have to stop looking for happiness elsewhere. ❜
- ❛ How did I find myself here? I wonder where it started, my decline; I wonder at what point I could have halted it. Where did I take the wrong turn? ❜
- ❛ Now look – Now look what you made me do. ❜
- ❛ It’s okay, whatever you did, whatever you’ve done: you suffered, you hurt, you deserve forgiveness. ❜
- ❛ They’re what I lost, they’re everything I want to be. ❜
- ❛ You broke me and I broke us. ❜
- ❛ I’ve been the fool. If he does it with you, he’ll do it to you. ❜
- ❛ I’d never realised, not until now, how shameful it is to be pitied. ❜
- ❛ Sometimes, I don’t want to go anywhere, I think I’ll be happy if I never have to set foot outside the house again. ❜
- ❛ I don’t believe in soul mates, but there’s an understanding between us that I just haven’t felt before, or at least, not for a long time. ❜
- ❛ There can be no greater agony, nothing can be more painful than the not knowing, which will never end. ❜
- ❛ Being the other woman is a huge turn-on, there’s no point in denying it: you’re the one he can’t help but betray his wife for, even though he loves her. That’s just how irresistible you are. ❜
- ❛ I feel a rush of gratitude so strong, it feels almost like love. ❜
- ❛ You don’t know how determined I can be. Once I’ve made my mind up, I’m a force to be reckoned with. ❜
- ❛ The more I want to be oblivious, the less I can be. Life and light will not let me be. ❜
- ❛ You don’t have to be afraid of being alone. It’s not the worst thing, is it? ❜
- ❛ I have felt this way before. On a larger scale, to a more intense degree, of course, but I remember the quality of the pain. You don’t forget it. ❜
- ❛ If he thinks I’m going to sit around crying, he’s got another thing coming. ❜
- ❛ I don’t like to lose. It’s not like me. None of this is like me. I don’t get rejected. I’m the one who walks away. ❜
- ❛ I don’t remember anger, raging fury. I remember fear. ❜
- ❛ I can’t sleep. I haven’t slept in days. I hate it, hate insomnia more than anything, just lying there, brain going round, tick, tick, tick, tick. ❜
- ❛ Maybe the courage I need has nothing to do with telling the truth and everything to do with walking away. ❜
- ❛ I’m not beautiful, and I can’t have kids, so what does that make me? Worthless. ❜
- ❛ Failure cloaked me like a mantle, it overwhelmed me, dragged me under and I gave up hope. ❜
- ❛ It’s an odd thing to say, but I think this all the time; I don’t feel bad enough. ❜
- ❛ Some battles aren’t worth fighting. ❜
- ❛ I never felt guilty. I pretended I did. I had to. ❜
- ❛ I never meant for any of this to happen, we fell in love, what could we do? ❜
- ❛ What bothers me most is that I haven’t got to the end of my story, and I can’t start over with someone else, it’s too hard. ❜