#lies

I’m proud of you, son,” he said. “I guess it has finally sunk in that it’s important to stand up for yourself in this world.” Rocky shook his head. “It’s more important to stand up for someone who can’t stand up for herself,” he had answered. Rocky Ryan speaking with his father. ↗

— Karen Mueller Coombs

#bullying #family-relationships #girls-who-bully #music #sibling-relationships

Lies are neither bad nor good. Like a fire they can either keep you warm or burn you to death, depending on how they're used. ↗

— Max Brooks

#falsity #lies #max-brooks #truth #world-war-z

Since that night I have come to understand that sometimes the best families of all are those we create ourselves, the people we choose to be with. ↗

— Silas House

#families #family #family

It had not seemed to matter that Rose was only eight years old. "More than eight," said Rose. "Nearly nine." "Darling Rose, even almost nearly nine-year-old's don't fall in love," said forgetful Caddy. Caddy tried very hard to comfort Rose when Tom had left. It was not an easy job. It was like trying to comfort a small, unhappy tiger. "Who said anything about falling in love?" growled Rose crossly. "Falling! Falling is by accident! I didn't fall in anything!" "Oh. Right. Sorry, Posy Rose." "And I am definitely not in love! ↗

— Hilary McKay

#families #love #realistic-fiction #family

How different other families were, the shape of them, the things they presumed, the children that grew up in them. ↗

— Margo Lanagan

#differences #families #family

External influences create internal chaos. ↗

— Valerie J. Lewis Coleman

#inspirational #stepfamily #stepmother #family

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