Top 450 Liane Moriarty Quotes (2025 Update)
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301. “As soon as she left the attic, she was picked up and swept along by the fast-running current of her life.”

— Liane Moriarty

302. “Frances longed to Google it. How was she going to cope for ten days without instant answers to idle questions?”

— Liane Moriarty

303. “Separation anxiety was the very first label Joy heard applied to her oldest child, the first of many labels she’d hear over the years, but Joy had felt no sense of foreboding when she heard that first one. She’d felt foolish pride: my child can’t bear to be separated from me! That’s how much she loves me. Amy used to cling to her like a koala, her face pressed against Joy’s collarbone.”

— Liane Moriarty

304. “He has mistakes in his past. I have mistakes in mine. The fact that we actually are each other’s mistakes is irrelevant!”

— Liane Moriarty

305. “Maybe it wasn’t that hard to be happy.”

— Liane Moriarty

306. “Everyone had another sort of life up their sleeve that might have made them happy.”

— Liane Moriarty

307. “Your mind resists death with all its might.”

— Liane Moriarty

308. “She’d paid full price, but life was a competition and she knew non-working wives of wealthy men loved to talk about how they’d saved by bargain-shopping for designer clothes. It was their contribution to the household finances.”

— Liane Moriarty

309. “I can’t be in the same room as you right now.” She hopped out of bed, taking the iPad with her. “Be ridiculous, then,” said Ed.”

— Liane Moriarty

310. “Miss Barnes clearly didn’t know what in the world to do. She was twenty-four years old, for heaven’s sake.”

— Liane Moriarty

311. “It’s no big deal. It is a big deal. They have no right to make you feel that way. Or, just ignore it, one day you’ll turn forty and you’ll slowly realize you don’t feel the eyes anymore, and the freedom is a relief, but you’ll also sort of miss it, and when a truck driver whistles at you while you’re crossing the road, you’ll think, Really? For me?”

— Liane Moriarty

312. “You’re different from other agency people,” one client told her at the end of their first meeting, as he shook her hand to seal the deal. “You actually listen more than you talk.”

— Liane Moriarty

313. “He couldn’t understand Rachel’s need to wonder what could have been, rather than just accepting that it never would be.”

— Liane Moriarty

314. “Each obligation on its own seemed laughably easy. It was the sheer volume that threatened to bury her.”

— Liane Moriarty

315. “It was interesting that fury and fear could look so much the same.”

— Liane Moriarty

316. “All babies had that same wise look, as if they’d just come from another realm where they’d learned some beautiful truth they couldn’t share. Every day brought an endless stream of new life.”

— Liane Moriarty

317. “This can happen to anyone.”

— Liane Moriarty

318. “Her brain couldn’t seem to catch up with the news.”

— Liane Moriarty

319. “No regrets. That was another of his trading rules. Never waste time thinking about what could have been.”

— Liane Moriarty

320. “The girl said, ‘Sometimes you locked me in my room with only water. I had to ration the water. That was a terrible thing to do to a little girl. I thought I would be there forever. I thought I would die. I think I might have come close to dying. A few times.”

— Liane Moriarty

321. “Sometimes there are no signs. That’s what he told the newly grieving parents at the Tuesday night group. He told them there was research to suggest that teenage suicide was often the consequence of an impulsive decision.”

— Liane Moriarty

322. “Friends could last a lifetime. The statistics were better than for relationships.”

— Liane Moriarty

323. “Ever since she’d been living alone, she’d gone to bed with the television on; the comforting banality of the murmuring voices and flickering images warded off the feeling of terror that could sometimes overwhelm her.”

— Liane Moriarty

324. “She would never again lie in bed on a Good Friday morning and relax in the blissful knowledge that there was nothing to do and nowhere to be, because for the rest of her life, there would always, always be something left undone. An unmade confession. An ugly secret.”

— Liane Moriarty

325. “There was nothing worse than having to feel sorry for people who had wronged you. You don’t want lottery wins for your enemies, but you don’t want tragedies for them either. Then they got the upper hand. Damn those Delaneys.”

— Liane Moriarty

326. “Watching someone have a panic attack was like looking in the eyes of someone trapped behind glass, drowning right in front of you.”

— Liane Moriarty

327. “Now we’re not talking. I haven’t seen him since. But I know when he comes back, we won’t talk. Or if we do, we’ll talk very, very politely and coldly – which is the same as not talking.”

— Liane Moriarty

328. “When she thought of that long night, it was like remembering an extraordinarily tough match where she’d prevailed. Except there was no trophy or applause. The only recognition you got for surviving a night like that came from other mothers. Only they understood the epic nature of your trivial achievements.”

— Liane Moriarty

329. “The world had begun to move faster and faster over the last decade. People spoke faster, drove faster, walked faster. Everyone was in a rush. Everyone was busy. Everyone demanded their gratification instantly.”

— Liane Moriarty

330. “Brooke was meant to avoid stress because of her migraines, not chase it, but she’d always been a martyr. Amy remembered Brooke as a little girl, high pigtails and reflective sunglasses.”

— Liane Moriarty

331. “I wish my memories would blur a bit,’ Savannah had said, looking into her glass. ‘I remember everything. The details never fade.”

— Liane Moriarty

332. “But even while he is frustrated with her, or hurt by her, or plain irritated by her, he still loves her, he still has a secret crush on her, he is still awed that someone this beautiful is with him.”

— Liane Moriarty

333. “She made the right choice for the girl she was then.”

— Liane Moriarty

334. “Each time she fell out of love with him, he saw it happen and waited it out.”

— Liane Moriarty

335. “Life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quickly you hardly catch it going’ Tennessee Williams.”

— Liane Moriarty

336. “Obstacles cannot crush me; every obstacle yields to stern resolve.” Good one, Leonardo. But the more I think about it, the more I think that maybe I wouldn’t say anything motivational at all. It’s quite possible that I might briskly slap my hands against my knees and say, “Sounds like it’s time you gave up.”

— Liane Moriarty

337. “As soon as he woke he’d be desperate to give Celeste his gift. He loved giving presents. The first time she knew she wanted to marry him was when she saw the anticipation on his face, watching his mother open a birthday present he’d bought for her. “Do you like it?” he’d burst out as soon she tore the paper, and his family had all laughed at him for sounding like a big kid.”

— Liane Moriarty

338. “Here’s the thing. You don’t know my father. He’s a stranger to you. All you see is a grumpy old man. He suppresses his emotions. That’s what men of his age do. That’s probably why he looks guilty to you.”

— Liane Moriarty

339. “We’re all on our own. Even when you’re surrounded by people, or sharing a bed with a loving lover, you’re alone.”

— Liane Moriarty

340. “The body could find balance between opposing forces. The mind could do the same.”

— Liane Moriarty

341. “She always forgot how pain was so upsetting. Cruel. It hurt your feelings. You just wanted it to stop, please, right now. Epidurals were the way to go. One epidural for my headache, please. Thank you.”

— Liane Moriarty

342. “I never believed it. That day in the Port-a-loo, while the world’s largest lemon meringue pie baked, I was convinced I was having my last miscarriage. But then the bleeding stopped. It was just “spotting,” as the medical world cheerily calls it. A spot of rain. A spot of bother. But even when the spotting finally stopped, I didn’t believe I was having a baby.”

— Liane Moriarty

343. “Now here they were. She couldn’t exactly say if Savannah had caught them on an upswing or a downswing, or if they’d finally found an equilibrium that would last them until death did them part. Sometimes it felt like their relationship ebbed and flowed over a day, or even a conversation. She could feel affection followed by resentment in the space of ten minutes.”

— Liane Moriarty

344. “Nick explained that an aperitif was an pre-dinner drink. Nick came from an aperitif-drinking family. Alice came from a family with one dusty bottle of Baileys sitting hopefully in the back of the pantry with the tins of spaghetti.”

— Liane Moriarty

345. “It was just a plate, her father kept saying to Christina. He never understood what that plate represented: Disrespect. Disregard. Contempt.”

— Liane Moriarty

346. “Stan Delaney had always known that women had the power to draw blood with their words. It was his mother’s favorite hobby: to knife the soft, stupid, defenseless egos of her husband and her son.”

— Liane Moriarty

347. “Then how is it that not a single one of you can maintain a long-term relationship? Did your father and I not set a good example to you? Of a good marriage?’ Her children all dropped their heads as if she’d called for volunteers for an unpleasant task. ‘So your dad and I weren’t.”

— Liane Moriarty

348. “And sure, they love their kids, but let’s be honest, they’re hard work. And it’s not like you get to keep those adorable babies. Babies disappear. They grow up. They.”

— Liane Moriarty

349. “As Jane looked around her, she felt that dissatisfied feeling she often experienced when she was somewhere new and lovely. She couldn’t quite articulate it except with the words “if only I were here”. This little beachside cafe was so exquisite, she longed to really be there – except, of course, she was there, so it didn’t make sense.”

— Liane Moriarty

350. “Claire was Troy’s ex-wife, once a much-loved member of the family, just like Indira and to a lesser extent, Grant. It was like a death each time her children broke up with someone, and over the years there had been many, many deaths.”

— Liane Moriarty