Top 200 Ann Napolitano Quotes (2024 Update)
Page 3 of 4

101. “It’s hard to explain, but our love was so deep and wide that it made me love everyone and everything in sight. Which included me.” She smiled wider. “I know it sounds silly, but I’m proud of myself. I guess for living a brave life.” William nodded, unable to speak for a second.”

— Ann Napolitano

102. “Boom chicka boom. Benjamin can hear her soundtrack so clearly she might as well be carrying a speaker on each hip. In his neighborhood, she’d have a line of men following her down the street, dancing to that beat.”

— Ann Napolitano

103. “I want to know what to do,” he hears himself say, and, like the decision to write to the co-pilot’s wife, the statement is a relief. He wants to know what to do. She taps the center of his hand. “That’s easy. The same thing we all must do. Take stock of who we are, and what we have, and then use it for good.”

— Ann Napolitano

104. “His body was now more or less irrelevant. Arash studied him. “I heard you’re.”

— Ann Napolitano

105. “I’m a writer,” Jane says. “I have a habit, I guess, where I see all the possibilities in a situation. No matter what, there’s always at least one that’s terrifying.”

— Ann Napolitano

106. “When Sylvie was a child, she’d watched in amazement when friends, upset about a bad day at school or a slight from a boy they had a crush on, burst into tears at the sight of their mother. Their mother was their safe space, and so, with her, they felt every iota of their feelings.”

— Ann Napolitano

107. “John gestures with his hand again, this time seeming to refer to everything: the photographs, the letters, middle age, marriage. “If you live long enough, everything is complicated.”

— Ann Napolitano

108. “The Taking of MH370.”

— Ann Napolitano

109. “The physical jolt shifts something inside Jordan, and a new truth yawns open: I do need them. I need all three of them. And while the plane hesitates, as if deciding its next move, his apartment now has a bunk bed to share with his brother and another bedroom, for his parents.”

— Ann Napolitano

110. “The fact that he had failed meant he had to continue to walk forward with his life history – his mistakes – slung over his shoulders like a heavy backpack. This fact exhausted him, but he was too tired to reject it.”

— Ann Napolitano

111. “No one had ever wanted him before. He wished he could take her in his arms, in front of her sisters.”

— Ann Napolitano

112. “Stop thinking about who you were when you were living the wrong life, William. You’re built for the life you’re living now. You have a gift for seeing what’s wrong with these boys. And besides, you can’t fail when you’re doing what you love.”

— Ann Napolitano

113. “The sky, as if taking a breath, lightens.”

— Ann Napolitano

114. “He was vast, and beautiful, and more present in the gift of baby formula to a young mother than in any.”

— Ann Napolitano

115. “No matter how many minutes remained on the clock, there was no chance of victory.”

— Ann Napolitano

116. “I could be mad at you. I could scream at you. But I won’t. You raised me to take care of myself, and I will.”

— Ann Napolitano

117. “He’d convinced himself something between them was broken, when in truth the broken thing was him. Edward’s cheeks grow hot. He, alone, had almost destroyed the most important part of his life.”

— Ann Napolitano

118. “Edward spends every night reaching for unconsciousness as if it were a rock in the middle of a river, while a fierce current pulls him away. His fingertips sometimes.”

— Ann Napolitano

119. “People fly despite knowing that a certain percentage of airplanes crash every year.”

— Ann Napolitano

120. “William worked on his passing too, so he could feed the ball to the best players in the park. He wanted to keep his place on the court, and he knew that if he made the other boys better, he had value.”

— Ann Napolitano

121. “Sylvie steered away from labels. She wanted to be true to herself with every word she uttered, every action she took, and every belief she held.”

— Ann Napolitano

122. “Sylvie had almost missed this life with this man, and because of this near-miss, she appreciated their moments together, even as they accumulated.”

— Ann Napolitano

123. “We thought the boy might want this.”

— Ann Napolitano

124. “The two boys lead the way down the hall. There are windows in this corridor, and the skyscrapers of New York City are visible in the distance – man-made mountains of steel and glass piercing a blue sky. Jane and Bruce can’t help but locate the spot where the Twin Towers used to be, the same way the tongue finds the hole where a tooth was pulled. Their sons, who were both toddlers when the towers fell, accept the skyline as it is.”

— Ann Napolitano

125. “He knows the loss of Jordan will remain with him forever, even as Edward slowly leaves his parents behind. He was supposed to grow up and leave his mom and dad, after all, just like he will leave John and Lacey in the fall when he goes to college. That is part of the natural order. Edward wasn’t supposed to leave Jordan, though. They were meant to age together. That loss continues to be spiked with pain; it will never be soothed.”

— Ann Napolitano

126. “Julia by her side; it made sense that with her sister she would also briefly be allowed her normal taste buds.”

— Ann Napolitano

127. “I knew that if I never found my great love, I would rather be single than settle for a mediocre relationship. I can’t bear to pretend happiness.”

— Ann Napolitano

128. “Sylvie thought, This is worth dying for.”

— Ann Napolitano

129. “He realizes – gripping the arms of his chair as hot pain blinks on and off in his midsection – that all the major chapters in his personal life started and ended on wrinkled bedsheets. All the wives, the would-be wives, the ex-wives, negotiated their terms in the bedroom.”

— Ann Napolitano

130. “I’m not going to waste their kindness.”

— Ann Napolitano

131. “Sylvie was being punished for the choice she’d made twenty-five years earlier. Even.”

— Ann Napolitano

132. “I know it sounds silly, but I’m proud of myself. I guess for living a brave life.”

— Ann Napolitano

133. “Imagine that I’m a house, and when I find my great love, I’ll become the entire world. Our love will show me so much more than I’ll be able to see on my own.”

— Ann Napolitano

134. “When he woke up in the hospital, dry, and saw Sylvie on a chair next to him, his first thought was that he’d failed. The fact that he had failed meant he had to continue to walk forward with his life history – his mistakes – slung over his shoulders like a heavy backpack. This fact exhausted him, but he was too tired to reject it.”

— Ann Napolitano

135. “In the dream, William was swimming away from his mother and father, while they swam away from him. And he had told his wife and daughter to go away. So many people leaving each other. There had been a claustrophobic atmosphere in the dream, a foreboding, as if they were all about to find out they were swimming in a fishbowl. They were trying to get away from one another, and they were doomed to fail.”

— Ann Napolitano

136. “She was failing to provide significant comfort to her baby, and she was failing to be the mother that Jordan had always known. The three-year-old gazed at her nursing nightgown and uncombed hair with a combination of fear and sadness. She was also keenly aware that she was failing herself – she’d always believed that she could kick the butt of any situation, and this proved she couldn’t. She was not the woman she’d thought she was, nor the one she’d planned to be.”

— Ann Napolitano

137. “He nods. Jordan was given the series as a birthday gift and then had the idea to take the books out of the library as well, so he and his brother could read them at the same time. They lay in their bunks for hours, for several weeks on end, mowing through one book after another. Jordan would call out from the top bunk: Holy cow, Eddie, are you on page 202 yet?”

— Ann Napolitano

138. “The passage of time, and the details that spun some moments into unforgettable memories and others into thin air, traveled with Sylvie – the swirling atmosphere of her own life – while she walked.”

— Ann Napolitano

139. “You’ll all set sail, as you should, and leave your mother and me here. It’s a tale as old as time.”

— Ann Napolitano

140. “This act of generosity – Cecelia and Emeline had nothing to gain from him, personally – still struck him as extraordinary.”

— Ann Napolitano

141. “Alice had always found her grandmother’s agitation comforting. It made her feel safe, because she knew if someone was ever mean to her, Grandma Rose would let them have it.”

— Ann Napolitano

142. “Julia sought to collect labels like honors student, girlfriend, and wife, but Sylvie steered away from labels. She wanted to be true to herself with every word she uttered, every action she took, and every belief she held.”

— Ann Napolitano

143. “Alice nodded in vague agreement, but it seemed too early for gossip, like going on vacation and buying a house on the first day. She thought, But we don’t know any of these people. I don’t know you. We’re all strangers.”

— Ann Napolitano

144. “God damn it, Emeline,” Sylvie said. She knew Emeline didn’t like it when she swore. “Why do you have to be so wise?” “I’m the only one without my own personal life, so I have time to watch you all.”

— Ann Napolitano

145. “When she’s anxious, she replays moments from her life, perhaps to convince herself that she has a history.”

— Ann Napolitano

146. “Edward swallows. Like a dutiful student, he follows her train of thought. Voldemort equals plane crash. Dead parents equal dead parents. Harry equals him.”

— Ann Napolitano

147. “Intense psychological stress tends to shut down the part of the brain responsible for innovative, creative thought.”

— Ann Napolitano

148. “This is worth dying for. A driver with a firm jawline.”

— Ann Napolitano

149. “To be the rocket, she had to be with her sisters, and she had to set her daughter free.”

— Ann Napolitano

150. “She’d carried a hesitation inside her ever since he’d met her at his basketball game when she was fourteen. Emeline had always seemed occupied with watching everyone else and trying to be helpful, but she’d stayed on the sidelines, as if it weren’t her turn to live.”

— Ann Napolitano