#lies

Guilt is a feeble emotion. It surrenders too easily ↗

— Deborah McKinlay

#relationships #women-s-literary #family

He lied all the time even when there was no need to lie [...] He needed a _history_, a sense of self. [Burnside on his father, p. 22] ↗

— John Burnside

#father #history #lies #family

Family' is not just a biological word, it's an an operative one. ↗

— Andrew Vachss

#family #family

And what if we’d been utterly open? Made jokes about the first wife? What if we’d been that kind of family? Well, I would have been different, surely. But not because I knew the secret. For it wasn’t the secret—the secret that wasn’t a secret anyway—that led to the austerity in our lives. It was the austerity that led to the secret. And what I had been marked by, probably most of all, was the austerity. It had made secrets in my life too. Or silences, anyway, that became secrets. That became lies. ↗

— Sue Miller

#secrets #family

Spiritual fathers have influence over the lives of individuals. Patriarchs have influence over families. The devil has been able to destroy families because there is a lack of spiritual fathers and patriarchs. ↗

— Sherry K. White

#fathers #kingdom-of-go #patriarchs #family

Even in good families a bad apple can begin an avalanche of troubles,' Dutch said as he sat back in his well-seasoned armchair, lighting his curved rustic pipe. From Book I, In Blood There is No Honor ↗

— Judith-Victoria Douglas

#honor #troubles #family

Modern families are complicated things. Siblings, half siblings, stepparents, stepcousins, what have you. You can't pick who you're born to, that's for sure. ↗

— Cherie Priest

#family

All the Kamals were fluent in irritation. They loved each other but were almost always annoyed by each other, in ways that were both generalised and existential (why is he like that?) and also highly specific (how hard is it to remember to put the top back on the yoghurt?). ↗

— John Lanchester

#irritation #love #relationships #family

Eine Familie, die keine schwarzen Schafe hat, ist keine charakteristische Familie." ("A family without a black sheep is not a typical family.") ↗

— Heinrich Böll

#families #family

I agree with you,” Marron said quietly. “For what it’s worth.” Perry nodded in thanks. It was worth a lot just then. ↗

— Veronica Rossi

#friendship #loyality #support #friendship