We Were Liars

by

E. Lockhart

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Part 1: Welcome Quotes

I am nearly eighteen. I own a well-used library card and not much else, though it is true I live in a grand house full of expensive, useless objects. I used to be blond, but now my hair is black. I used to be strong, but now I am weak. I used to be pretty, but now I look sick.

Related Characters: Cadence “Cady” Eastman (speaker)
Page Number: 4
Explanation and Analysis:

“Maybe land shouldn’t belong to people at all. Or maybe there should be limits on what they can own.” He leaned forward. “When I went to India this winter, on that volunteer trip, we were building toilets. Building them because people there, in this one village, didn’t have them.”

“We all know you went to India […] You told us like forty-seven times.”

Related Characters: Gatwick “Gat” Patil (speaker), Johnny (speaker), Cadence “Cady” Eastman, Mirren
Page Number: 19-20
Explanation and Analysis:

“Watch yourself, young man,” said Granddad, sharp and sudden.

“Pardon me?”

“Your head. You could get hurt.”

“You’re right,” said Gat. “You’re right, I could get hurt.”

Related Characters: Gatwick “Gat” Patil (speaker), Harris Sinclair (speaker), Cadence “Cady” Eastman
Page Number: 27
Explanation and Analysis:

Do you understand, Cady? Silence is a protective coating over pain.

Related Characters: Penny Sinclair Eastman (speaker), Cadence “Cady” Eastman, Harris Sinclair, Tipper Sinclair
Page Number: 32
Explanation and Analysis:

I am not immune to the feeling of being viewed as a mystery, as a Sinclair, as part of a privileged clan of special people, and as part of a magical, important narrative, just because I am part of this clan.

Related Characters: Cadence “Cady” Eastman (speaker)
Related Symbols: Fairy Tales
Page Number: 44
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: Vermont Quotes

“Beauty is a valid use,” Mummy argues. “It creates a sense of place, a sense of personal history. Pleasure, even, Cadence. Have you ever heard of pleasure?”

Related Characters: Penny Sinclair Eastman (speaker), Cadence “Cady” Eastman
Page Number: 50
Explanation and Analysis:

You began asking me the day you woke in the hospital. ‘What happened? What happened?’ I told you the truth, Cadence, I always did, and you’d repeat it back to me. But the next day you’d ask again.

Related Characters: Penny Sinclair Eastman (speaker), Cadence “Cady” Eastman
Page Number: 54
Explanation and Analysis:

“Cadence was the first, and it didn’t matter that she was a girl. I would give her everything. Just like a grandson. I carried her in my arms and danced. She was the future of our family.”

Related Characters: Harris Sinclair (speaker), Cadence “Cady” Eastman
Page Number: 57
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3: Summer Seventeen Quotes

“I have a boyfriend named Drake Loggerhead,” says Mirren. “He’s going to Pomona like I am. We have had sexual intercourse quite a number of times, but always with protection. He brings me yellow roses every week and has nice muscles.”

Related Characters: Mirren (speaker), Cadence “Cady” Eastman
Page Number: 77
Explanation and Analysis:

A witch has been standing there behind me for some time, waiting for a moment of weakness. She holds an ivory statue of a goose. It is intricately carved. I turn and admire it only for a moment before she swings it with shocking force. It connects, crushing a hole in my forehead.

Related Characters: Cadence “Cady” Eastman (speaker)
Page Number: 84
Explanation and Analysis:

“I started over with this house,” he says simply. “That old life is gone.”

Related Characters: Harris Sinclair (speaker), Cadence “Cady” Eastman
Related Symbols: Clairmont
Page Number: 98
Explanation and Analysis:

“Oh please,” snapped Mummy. “Only yesterday you were saying how busy you were and now you’re helping remodel the Boston house?”

Related Characters: Penny Sinclair Eastman (speaker), Bess
Page Number: 109
Explanation and Analysis:

“You feel like you know me, Cady, but you only know the me who comes here,” he says. “It’s—its just not the whole picture. You don’t know my bedroom with the window onto the airshaft, my mom’s curry, the guys from school, the way we celebrate holidays. You only know the me on this island, where everyone’s rich except me and the staff.”

Related Characters: Gatwick “Gat” Patil (speaker), Cadence “Cady” Eastman
Page Number: 114
Explanation and Analysis:

Now, at the breakfast table, watching him eat my toast, “Don’t take no for an answer” seemed like the attitude of a privileged guy who didn’t care who got hurt, so long as his wife had the cute statues she wanted to display in her summerhouses.

Related Characters: Cadence “Cady” Eastman (speaker), Harris Sinclair
Page Number: 123
Explanation and Analysis:

I wish I had her life. A boyfriend, plans, college in California. Mirren is going off into her sunshine future, whereas I am going back to Dickenson Academy to another year of snow and suffocation.

Related Characters: Mirren (speaker), Cadence “Cady” Eastman
Page Number: 128
Explanation and Analysis:

“Someone did something to me that is too awful to remember.”

Related Characters: Cadence “Cady” Eastman (speaker), Gatwick “Gat” Patil
Page Number: 152
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4: Look, a Fire Quotes

Look. A fire. There on the southern tip of Beechwood Island. Where the maple tree stands over the wide lawn. The house is alight. The flames shoot high, brightening the sky.

Related Characters: Cadence “Cady” Eastman (speaker)
Related Symbols: Clairmont
Page Number: 168
Explanation and Analysis:

Carrie lived with Ed. The Two of them bought art that might or might not be valuable later. Johnny and Will went to private school. Carrie had started a jewelry boutique with her trust and ran it for a number of years until it failed. Ed earned money, and he supported her, but Carrie didn’t have an income of her own. And they weren’t married. He owned their apartment and she didn’t.

Related Characters: Cadence “Cady” Eastman (speaker), Johnny, Carrie, Ed, Will
Page Number: 176
Explanation and Analysis:

“He knows he’s not supposed to be that guy. He’s a Democrat, he voted for Obama—but that doesn’t mean he’s comfortable having people of color in his beautiful family.”

Related Characters: Gatwick “Gat” Patil (speaker), Cadence “Cady” Eastman, Harris Sinclair
Page Number: 182
Explanation and Analysis:

“You chose Ed; you chose to live with him. You chose to bring Gat here every summer, when you know he’s not one of us. You know the way Dad thinks, and you not only keep running around with Ed, you bring his nephew here and parade him around like a defiant little girl with a forbidden toy.”

Related Characters: Bess (speaker), Gatwick “Gat” Patil, Carrie, Ed
Page Number: 189
Explanation and Analysis:

“This is the United States of America,” he said. “You don’t seem to understand that, Penny, so let me explain. In America, here is how we operate: We work for what we want, and we get ahead. We never take no for an answer, and we deserve the rewards of our perseverance.”

Related Characters: Harris Sinclair (speaker), Penny Sinclair Eastman
Page Number: 194
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 5: The Truth Quotes

Cadence Sinclair Eastman was present on the island at the time of the fire but did not notice it until it was well underway.

Related Characters: Cadence “Cady” Eastman
Page Number: 223
Explanation and Analysis:

I cry for my aunts, who lost their firstborn children. For Will, who lost his brother. For Liberty, Bonnie, and Taft, who lost their sister. For Granddad, who saw not just his palace burn to the ground, but his grandchildren perish. For the dogs, the poor naughty dogs.

Related Characters: Cadence “Cady” Eastman (speaker)
Page Number: 223
Explanation and Analysis:

I love you in spite of my grief. Even though you are crazy. I love you in spite of what I suspect you have done.

Related Characters: Penny Sinclair Eastman (speaker), Cadence “Cady” Eastman
Page Number: 238
Explanation and Analysis:

“I want to be an accepting person, but I am so full of leftover rage. I imagined I’d be saintly and wise, but instead I’ve been jealous of you, mad at the rest of my family.”

Related Characters: Mirren (speaker), Cadence “Cady” Eastman
Page Number: 240
Explanation and Analysis:
No matches.