Clare Mackintosh > Quotes

“My steps feel lighter now and I realize it’s because I’m running toward something, and not away from it.”
― Clare Mackintosh, I Let You Go

“Such a small impact on the world, yet the very centre of my own.”
― Clare Mackintosh, I Let You Go

“Five years of someone's life is too much to lose over a throwaway comment.”
― Clare Mackintosh, I Let You Go

“How fast can you run?

When you really have to?

In heels and a work skirt, with your bag banging against your side: how fast?

When you’re late for your train and you have to get home, and you race down the platform with seconds to spare: how fast can you run?

What if it isn’t a train you’re running for, but your life?

If you’re late home from work, and there’s no one in sight. If you haven’t charged your phone and no one knows where you are. If the footsteps behind you are getting closer, and you know, because you do it every day, that you’re on your own; that between the platform and the exit you won’t see another soul.

If there’s breath on your neck, and the panic is rising, and it’s dark, and cold, and wet.

If it’s just the two of you.

Just you, and whoever’s behind you.

Whoever is chasing you.

How fast could you run then?

It doesn’t matter how fast.

Because there’s always someone who can run faster.”
― Clare Mackintosh, I See You

“Gradually, without my noticing, my grief has changed shape; from a raw, jagged pain that won't be silenced to a dull, rounded ache I'm able to lock away at the back of my mind.”
― Clare Mackintosh, I Let You Go

“...When you stand at the crossroad you cannot see each destination, only the beginnings of the paths that will lead you there. All you can do is hope that someone will walk with you.”
― Clare Mackintosh, After the End

“I want to fix an image of him in my head, but all I can see when I close my eyes is his body, still and lifeless in my arms. I let him go, and I will never forgive myself for that.”
― Clare Mackintosh, I Let You Go

“You must remember that he was a boy. That he had a mother. And that her heart is breaking.”
― Clare Mackintosh, I Let You Go

“I wonder briefly if I have become immune to physical pain: if the human body is not designed to handle both physical and emotional hurt.”
― Clare Mackintosh, I Let You Go

“I let his words fall around me like music; not understanding every line but enjoying the sound they make.”
― Clare Mackintosh, I See You

“I don’t trust my instincts anymore—they’ve been wrong so many times before—and so the safest thing to do is to stay well away.”
― Clare Mackintosh, I Let You Go

“Everyone has an opinion, yet the truth is that no one can really know what is right. No one can predict the future, and so all we can do is make a decision based on the facts we have, and—sometimes on what our heart tells us.”
― Clare Mackintosh, After the End

“In a few moments, the doors will open, and the next act of Dylan’s story will begin. No matter what the judge’s ruling, Max’s and Pip’s lives will be irreversibly changed today, and Leila knows they will forever question the choices they made in the weeks leading up to the hearing. But when you stand at a crossroad you cannot see each destination, only the beginnings of the paths that will lead you there. All you can do is choose one, and walk, and hope that someone will walk with you.”
― Clare Mackintosh, After the End

“It’s reactive, not proactive. We shouldn’t be sitting back, waiting for intelligence to come to us: we should be out there looking for it.”
― Clare Mackintosh, I Let You Go

“Freeze or reheat. Thinking of you. I still don’t know who it’s from. Many of the condolence cards that arrived after my parents’ deaths came with stories of the cars they’d sold over the years. Keys handed to over-confident teens and over-anxious parents. Two-seater sports cars traded for family-friendly estates. Cars to celebrate promotions, big birthdays, retirements. My parents played a part in many different stories.”
― Clare Mackintosh, I Let You Go

“They speak to each other through the magistrate, like warring children communicating through a parent, their words are extravagantly emotive illustrated with flamboyant gestures that are wasted on the empty court room”
― Clare Mackintosh, I Let You Go

“Sometimes shit just happens, and you have to deal with it in the best way you can.”
― Clare Mackintosh, I See You

“Everything has changed. The instant the car slid across the wet tarmac, my whole life changed. I can see everything clearly, as though I am standing on the sidelines. I can't go on like this.”
― Clare Mackintosh, I Let You Go

“I believe people walk into your life at precisely the right moment for you,”
― Clare Mackintosh, Let Me Lie

“We can't change the past...We can only change the way we feel about it, and the way it affects our future.”
― Clare Mackintosh, Let Me Lie

“Variety is important. Even the finest steak becomes dull when you eat it all the time.”
― Clare Mackintosh, I See You

“None of us knows what’s going to happen in the future, love. The only thing we can do is make our choices on the way we feel right here, right now.”
― Clare Mackintosh, After the End

“It's like when two people have the flu," Blair says. "They know how the other feels, but they're too sick to nurse each other. They both need to get better first.”
― Clare Mackintosh, After the End

“They reach the quiet street where home lies just around the corner, its seductive warmth a welcome sight.”
― Clare Mackintosh, I Let You Go

“Truth slid into my mind like the answer to a crossword clue long after the paper’s been thrown away, and my mouth formed the words I didn’t want to say.”
― Clare Mackintosh, Hostage

“Life, changing with a single word. A single lie.”
― Clare Mackintosh, Let Me Lie

“I guess when you become a parent yourself you have to work harder at being a child to your own parents.”
― Clare Mackintosh, After the End

“Remember how you were mad for motorcross? You’d spend all weekend the track, or fixing up bikes. You loved it so much. Didn’t I have something like that; something I loved more than anything else?”
Matt comes closer, the smell of cigarettes and extra-string mints reassuringly familiar. “Me,” he says quietly. “You loved me.”
― Clare Mackintosh, I See You

“Empty arms feel empty forever, even when they’re full again.”
― Clare Mackintosh, After the End

“He’d have done anything for me; I’d have done anything for him. That’s how it works when you love someone.”
― Clare Mackintosh, Hostage