How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
The self-help books and websites haven't come up with a proper title for spouses living in the purgatory that exists before the courts have officially ratified your personal tragedy (2.3)
Self-help books might not have a name for it, but we think "It's Complicated" does a pretty good job of expressing Jen and Judd's not-quite-married, but not-quite-divorced relationship. Although Judd feels betrayed by Jen, he still isn't ready to completely give up on their marriage.
Quote #2
We knew marriage could be difficult in the same way that we knew there were starving children in Africa. It was a tragic fact but worlds away from our reality. (3.2)
Everyone knows that marriage is difficult—for other people. Somehow we think that we'll be exempt. Spoiler alert: we're not.
Quote #3
Every so often we'd get into a fight over something larger, and we'd scream and vent all of our gripes, tears would fall, hurts would be validated, and the sex would get good again for a while, passionate and intense, and then the cycle would repeat. (19.28)
Talk about the very definition of "vicious cycle." Judd's fight-and-forgive pattern might have been comforting to him at one point, but eventually the cycle became a marriage-killer.