‘this is how you lose her’ sentence meme, part one
Junot Díaz is a Dominican American writer, creative writing professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and fiction editor at Boston Review. This sentence meme comes from his short story collection This Is How You Lose Her.
Considering the collection, there’s a lot of references to infidelity and toxic relationships.
Feel free to change things around to better suit your characters!!!
This Is How You Lose Her
I’m not a bad guy. I know how that sounds—defensive, unscrupulous—but it’s true. I’m like everybody else: weak, full of mistakes, but basically good.
You know how it is. A smelly bone like that, better off buried in the backyard of your life.
The thing is, that particular bit of stupidity had been over for months.
You have to listen to me, ____. Or you won’t understand.
So you won’t forget me.
Why don’t you leave me alone?
It’s because I love you.
She’s sensitive, too. Takes to hurt the way water takes to paper.
You give this to her no matter what happens.
If this was another kind of story, I’d tell you about the sea. What it looks like after it’s been forced into the sky through a blowhole.
What can I tell you? I thought we were on a positive vibe.
What don’t you understand? I. Don’t. Want. To. Be. Here.
I just want some space to myself every now and then. Every time I’m with you I have this sense that you want something from me.
I just wish you’d say you love me.
Can you say you like me a lot?
Can you leave me alone? You’re such a pestilence.
Jealousy is the best way to jump-start a relationship.
They only hit you when they care.
The truth is there ain’t no relationship in the world that doesn’t hit turbulence.
Our relationship wasn’t the sun, the moon, and the stars, but it wasn’t bullshit, either.
Where are the stars?
We look good.
You’re a real bitch, you know that.
I didn’t want to come here. You made me.
If you didn’t want to come, why didn’t you have the fucking guts to say so?
This place is killing me.
And that’s when I know it’s over. As soon as you start thinking about the beginning, it’s the end.
God, you don’t have to be a pussy about it.
This can work. All we have to do is try.
Nilda
I wanted to warn her, tell her he was a monster, but she was already headed for him at the speed of light.
In another universe I probably came out OK, but in this world I had a long dark patch of life like a mile of black ice waiting for me up ahead.
Remember the day we met?
Otravida, Otravez
Yes, but what if it had been me? What would you have done?
You have to learn to trust your men.
In those first days, I was so alone that every day was like eating my own heart.
She has a mouth like unswept glass—when you least expect it she cuts you.
How many get to this point? Only the ones who never swerve, who never make mistakes, who are never unlucky.
Please, please, my love, tell me what it is. How long did it take before I stopped mattering?
Why? Did you see anything wrong?
You must not think on these things. Keep them out of your mind. You do not want to go crazy from them.
Here there are calamities without end—but sometimes I can clearly see us in the future, and it is good.
I already told you it’s over. What else do you want?
You women never know how to leave things alone. You never know how to let go.
You are on your way to another life. You won’t have time to miss me.
Yes, I will. I’ll probably be over to visit you every day.
You won’t have the time.
I will if I make time. Are you trying to get rid of me?
I guess it’s true what they say: if you wait long enough everything changes.
This is what I know: people’s hopes go on forever.
I would never go back. Not for anything. Not for anyone.
* leo, huan.
