Cody McFadyen Quotes

“She doesn't speak, and I say nothing more. We just stare at each other, letting the tears roll down our cheeks. That's what tears are for, after all. A way for the soul to bleed.”

— Cody McFadyen

Life is monstrous, but life is beautiful

— Cody McFadyen

“Ah, James, our James," she says, sounding wistful. "Can't live with him, can't kill him slowly enough." - Callie (pg. 141)”

— Cody McFadyen

“You can love the ocean, and many do, but don't expect it to love you back. It's too forever”

— Cody McFadyen

“Life is smoke, plain and simple; we just fool ourselves that it's otherwise. All it takes is one good gust and we float away and disappear, leaving behind only the scent of our passing in the form of memories.”

— Cody McFadyen

“His story remains behind, echoing inside me, a tale of impossible choices.”

— Cody McFadyen

This is the thing, I think often, that never occurs to you when you consider what it would be like to lose someone you love. That you would miss not just the flowers and kisses, but the totality of the experience. You miss the failures and little evils with as much desperation as you miss being held in the middle of the night. I wish he were here now, and I was kissing him. I wish he were here now, and I was betraying him. Either would be fine, so fine, as long as he was here.

— Cody McFadyen

I'll sing forever and never hear a word.

— Cody McFadyen

“People ask sometimes, when they get up the courage, what it's like to lose someone you love. I tell them it's hard, and leave it at that.
I could tell them that it's a crucifixion of the heart. I could say that most days after, I screamed without stopping, even as I moved through the city, even with my mouth closed, even though I didn't make a sound. I could tell them I have this dream, every night, and lose him again, every morning.
But, hey, why ruin their day? So I tell them it's hard. That usually seems to satisfy them.”

— Cody McFadyen

“That I gave a bad blow job." She bats her eyes sweetly. "Will the Big Guy forgive me? I never did it again, and I'm a much better cocksucker now, I promise.”

— Cody McFadyen

“That's what tears are for, after all. A way for the soul to bleed. Pg. 109”

— Cody McFadyen

As much as we might like to break, we're really only made to bend.

— Cody McFadyen

“Love is not about romance or passion. Love is about a state of grace. You experience it when you accept the absolute truth of the other person, both the cruel and the divine, and they accept these things in you, and you find that you still long to share a life with them. To know the worst in another and still want them with all your soul. To know that they feel the same way. It is a sense of security and power. And once you have arrived at this, the richness of romance and passion that appears is not blinding. Instead, it is invulnerable and forever.”

— Cody McFadyen

“The simple fact is that evil preys on good, and today, good had a bad day. Which brings with it an acceptance of the other side of that argument, that tomorrow might be evil's turn for some rain. And that's called hope.”

— Cody McFadyen

“The symphony of motherhood, it's about loving with absolute abandon, loving without regard for self, loving with a near totality of being. It's about a passion that could outburn the sun with its brightness. About a depthless hope and a fierce, rending joy.”

— Cody McFadyen

The First Rule of Mom: Love. The Second Rule of Mom: Feed your offspring.

— Cody McFadyen

“Having a ten-year-old daughter can be like living with a fairy. Something magical.”

— Cody McFadyen

“Most people can't truly conceive of being in a place where death might be preferable to life. Life is strong. It grips you in many ways, from the beating of your heart, to the sun on your face, to the feel of the ground beneath your feet. It grasps you.”

— Cody McFadyen

Grief is like that sometimes. Like water, it finds any opening, forces itself through any crack until it explodes, inexorable.

— Cody McFadyen

“Real people are messy and complicated and generally inconvenient, but at least they are there,”

— Cody McFadyen

The truth is, bad things are going to happen somewhere, every single day, and today was just your turn.

— Cody McFadyen

One of the gifts of a long marriage is the ability to communicate anything-from mild displeasure to the meaning of life-with a single glance. It's something you develop in the process of mixing your soul with your spouse's, if you're willing to mix your soul.

— Cody McFadyen

“You just have to live and love and do your best in both. That's God, and that's heaven, and it's not something we have to wait until we die to find. It's here, now, in all of us.”

— Cody McFadyen