Talking at Night Quotes

“You’re indecisive, for one. You let other people choose for you, over what you want, and that’s not just sad, Rosie, it’s fucking spineless, which is the opposite of what you actually are. And you have this false perception of what’s good and, I don’t know, proper. Like it matters. You don’t live your life the way you should. You never speak out, to anyone, least of all your mother, who frankly could do with being put straight. You don’t sing, anymore. You deny yourself everything. You rob yourself, Roe. Every second of every hour, you’re forcing yourself into some kind of box, and it’s fucking painful to witness, but you do it anyway because you don’t know any different, and nobody’s ever told you not to. Snow is falling now. It drifts down, lands in her hair. She is looking at him as he rants, her hands back beneath her arms. But in spite of all that, Will says, there is not a single thing wrong with you, Roe. With any tiny part of you.”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“and what might a soul look like, if you could touch it, if you could dance with the light and the dark of it.”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“I wish I’d done everything on earth with you, she says. The street is quiet. No cars, or closing doors. Just them, and her voice, on the linen-dry wind. It’s not mine, she says. The quote. But it’s beautiful, isn’t it? He nods, but barely, because he is not used to such talk. And I feel it, Rosie says, still with that smile of hers. I was just thinking that I feel it.”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“Just ask yourself what feels like home,”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“Don’t miss out on something good, simply because it’s different.”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“she wonders, as her feet pound the belt, why she is always trying so hard. Who she is trying for. Why everything matters, all of the time.”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“How did you know, she asks him, later. They have eaten dinner, showered, are lying in bed with the duvet folded around them. Know what, Will says, into her hair. She is pressed into him, her back curved along his stomach, his knees tucked alongside her calves. What I needed, she says. Will is not sure this is a real question. He thinks it might be her way of simply telling him what everything has meant to her. Not just the piano, but all that time apart, the months where they did not speak, gave each other space, tried to heal in their own, separate, fruitless ways. How he never forgot her. He never knew they would find their way back to one another; never dared hope it would happen. But life continued, and there she was, and here he is, for her.”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“Do you think everyone has a thing? Like, something they’re meant to do? I don’t mean some grand vocation, or anything. But do you think we all need something to, I don’t know . . . anchor us?”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“Exist, in tandem, and ask nothing more of each other.”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“she laughs, and it is so easy and she thinks of how different she feels, right now—not weighted down or boxed in, but torn open.”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“It is not world-changing work, she realizes, but it feels life-changing. For her.”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“I figure we’re all dying with every day, he says. So we might as well do what we want, before it happens.”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“He knows this is what she needs; openness, and space, without imposed timelines or rules. It has felt like one long summer since they found their way back to one another, and that is no time at all, really, not after all the years he has waited.”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“It felt dangerous, and this, she thinks, is the opposite. She feels steadied in Simon’s arms. Propped up. With Will, she never knew where she was, how he might make her feel.”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“I’d say you just love the idea of her, then, she says. You’re pinning everything on something you’ve never even had. Something that’s not real.”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“It doesn’t matter, Will says. You let her get smaller, and thinner, and even quieter than she was.”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“They have not spoken for nearly two years. He does not want to draw her in again, doesn’t want to go there, even though he so badly wants to hear from her, to read her words on a screen, and he is furious with her, for that. For making him want something he shouldn’t.”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“I know it seems like I didn’t choose you, ever, Rosie says, when all I wanted was to choose you. And I’m sorry I never said that to you. Even if we’re only ever going to be friends, that’s okay, I think, but I just wanted to be able to say it. It’s all I can think about, now; that you matter, more than anything, to me. And I never even told you.”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“She thinks she loves Simon, and she knows he loves her, but sometimes she wants him to look at her like he could eat her; wants him to touch her in a way that means she feels wanted, instead of just cared for. But he sips wine and talks and smiles with all his teeth and passes carrots across the table.”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“He knows this is what she needs; openness, and space, without imposed timelines or rules.”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“Sex, with her husband, is sometimes nice, and occasionally awkward, and often makes her shiver in the wrong kind of way. He is away with work a lot. He is sweet and tender when he is home, and for this, she feels grateful and guilty as hell.”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“Even when you’re saying nice things, I feel like you’re angry, she says. I never know what you want from me.”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“Never again, he'd promised himself. Never again would he touch her, or get close to her, in case his heart couldn't take it.
But now she is here, beside him, and never has already been broken.”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“He tells her he loves her, too, because it turns out it only takes practice, and meaning it – and feeling it – has nothing to do with anything.”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“I think I’m bored, Mum. I feel stuck. And tired, all the time.”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“He wants to tell her that love and fury so often feel the same, to him. That his skin burns for her. His blood crawls, and that doesn’t feel safe or nice or quiet; it feels like rage.”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“He hasn’t felt this upward tilt before; as if everything inside him, the soles of his feet, his diaphragm and his deltoids, are being lifted toward the sky.”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“I wish I’d done everything on earth with you.”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“They stay outside as long as they can stand it; four and a half apple tarts each, cold hands, numb toes. I kind of like it, Rosie says, when they compare their loss of feeling. When there’s a warm house right there, and I know we can just step inside. It’s why I like cold showers, Will says, as she”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night

“He doesn’t try small talk. Doesn’t ask her about school or subjects or being a twin. He asks her, immediately, why she rarely sleeps, and this is what does it; this is what catches her, places him in her sphere in a way she wasn’t ready for. I just worry about things, she says. Sometimes.”
― Claire Daverley, Talking at Night