Suzanne Finnamore, Split: A Memoir of Divorce

"Surprises, I feel now, are primarily a form of violence."

"How can I grieve what is still in motion?"I ask her. "Shoes are still dropping all over the place. I´m not kidding,"I say. "It´s Normandy out there."

"I mentally bless and exonerate anyone who has kicked a chair out from beneath her or swallowed opium in large chunks. My mind has met their environment, here in the void. I understand perfectly."

"How do you know? How best to ensure his nervous breakdown?"I ask."Keep going,"Christian says. "Just go on as if nothing has happened. We all hate that."

"Delusion detests focus and romance provides the veil."

"They feel life is for the taking, and that everyone deserves happiness no matter what the cost. I must remember these tricks if I ever decide to have my soul surgically removed."

"Someday I will have revenge. I know in advance to keep this to myself, and everyone will be happier. I do understand that I am expected to forgive N and his girlfriend in a timely fashion, and move on to a life of vegetarian cooking and difficult yoga positions and self-realization, and make this so much easier and more pleasant for all concerned."

"He announces that lately he keeps losing things. "Like your wife and child,"I want to say, but don´t. At fourty, I´ve learned not to say everything clever, not to score every point."

"So many events and moments that seemed insignificant add up. I remember how for the last Valentine´s Day, N gave flowers but no card. In restaurants, he looked off into the middle distance while my hand would creep across the table to hold his. He would always let go first. I realize I can´t remember his last spontaneous gesture of affection."

"I love you as the mother of my child": the kiss of death.Mother of His Child: demotion. I am beginning to see this truism: Mothers are not always wives. I have been stripped of a piece of self."

"Take me now, God!"I shout to the inky sky. "I´m ready.""You´re not ready. You´re not even divorced yet,"Bunny says. "You cannot die married to that man."

"Delusion detests focus and romance provides the veil."

"Any way I slice reality it comes out poorly, and I feel an urge to not exist, something I have never felt before; and now here it comes with conviction, almost panic. I mentally bless and exonerate anyone who has kicked a chair out from beneath her or swallowed opium in large chunks. My mind has met their environment, here in the void. I understand perfectly."

"God is great and God is good,"Lisa says. "But where are the Apache attack helicopters when you need them?"

"I used to loathe ambivalence; now I adore it. Ambivalence is my new best friend."

"The snag about marriage is, it isn´t worth the divorce."