Guilt and Blame Quotes in The Girl on the Train

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #1

I am not the girl I used to be. I am no longer desirable, I'm off-putting in some way. […] It's as if people can see the damage written all over me, can see it in my face, the way I hold myself, the way I move. (1.33)

Because Rachel feels guilty for everything she's done (or thinks she's done) she believes that everyone else can read it on her, as if she has "guilty drunk" tattooed on her forehead. Acting this way probably does make people look at her differently, which only reinforces the terrible way she thinks of herself.

Quote #2

And I'll be telling myself all day, it's not the worst thing, is it? It's not the worst thing I've ever done. (1.41)

What follows this sentence are a few horrible situations, written as though they're hypothetical, but we learn throughout the book that all of them are terrible things Rachel actually did, and she still feels guilty about them. She's guilty because she let her drunk personality take over and do things she wouldn't normally do.

Quote #3

Maybe if I'd done all that, I wouldn't have ended up here, not knowing what to do next. (2.30)

Megan planned to travel the world with her brother but she never did, and then her brother died. She's always felt guilty about that, calling him "the big hole in [her] life" (2.31).