Anna Godbersen

“But in that moment she realized how false most smiles were and what a tremendous waste of time.”

“...That kind of love is always changing, you can never plant your feet on it. Trust me there will be others. But those kinds of affairs-you can't ever count on them like blood.”

“He was just like summer, and she loved summer. If she had any wish, it would be to live a lifetime of summers.”

“...when girls use the brightness of their eyes or the softness of their skin, they have an uncommon advantage in getting what they want.”

“... and in that part of the world the darkness could go on and on forever, as though there would never be light again. She hadn't ever been able to tolerate that very well.”

“In New York there is always something to look at, but it is all infinitely more interesting through a window in the backseat of a limousine.”

“Beside him, at that very moment of existence, at the heart of a torrential downpour, he was exquisitely real, and she, too, seemed content to go on sitting there forever.”

“I can't imagine what my life was before. I can't imagine ever being without you for very long again.”

“She had believed him to be hers, time and again, but still she could not stay the feeling that he might at any moment slip through her fingers.”

“Sé cruel, hermanita, o el mundo te tratará con crueldad.”

“She will be busy writing novels. As soon as she had has gotten far enough away from this frighteningly puritanical country, her mind will be set free, and she will be able to turn all of her observations in richly drawn characters and intricately themed stories.” “But what will she eat, dear Grass?” Barnard leaned against the wall, his arms crossing his chest skeptically. “Baguette and red wine, pure art, filthy air. Look at her, she is made of rose petals, and the world will take good care of her. And if it does not, we will have our hearts moved by such an exquisitely gorgeous tragedy.”

“You don’t need to marry a man with millions. You only need to be your exquisite self.”

“She wanted to walk slowly and smell the wafting perfumes of bouquets that men had bought for their sweethearts and watch couples holding each other tight as they dashed along the pavement on their way to or from something that made them grateful to be in each other's company. Going home felt the same as going to sleep, and she was too bouncing, too overcome with bliss for that.”

“A criada de senhoras ideal deve acordar antes da sua ama, aquecer água para ela lavar o rosto e não se deitar antes de a ter despido para dormir. Pode necessitar de uma sesta durante o dia, quando a ama não precisar dela. - Guia de Van Kamp sobre o governo da casa para as senhoras da alta sociedade, edição de 1899”

“Property has ever been a fluid concept--just ask the wife of the Wall Street speculator who writes her party invitations on Marie Antoinette's escritoire.”

“It is a fact of big cities that one girl's darkest how is always another's moment of shining triumph, and New York is the biggest and cruelest city of them all.”

“Darling, don't be silly, your whole future is ahead of you. All you have to do is go out there and ask for a part- something small and reasonable just to start with. From there, no one can stop you. Don't feel bad about anything you've done, and for God's sake, have fun.”

“No- it was the best. Kind of joint where everyone checked their worries at the door. The beer was cold, the jokes came easy, we could smell the ocean, and everyone was always happy to be there.”

“Interesting' people were her favorite hobby. She collected them: the type who did gay things late at night and smoked cigarettes in mixed company, those would have most scandalized her own mother.”

“That is what I want to tell you about: the girls with their short skirts and bright eyes and big-city dreams.The girls of 1929.”

“I know it’s going to sound funny, but I know you’ve been hanging around with that Billie Marsh, so maybe it won’t be strange after all. Would you be my best man—or, I don’t know, my best lady?”

“Diana wore a men's bowler with the intials H. W. S. sewn into the lining and an old French army coat.”

“But I wanted to tell you before I left how completely abjectly sorry I am for all the pain I have caused you and that if I die you were the one true love of my life. By the time you read this I will be gone but please know I am still always at your side....' Yours forever Henry William Schoonmaker”

“I know that I might die but that seems a happier end than being without you and anyway it seems to me that looking in the face of hard things and still being able to move forward even when the end includes grave danger and the possibility of death is the mark of a man.”

“Edith who had still not fully recovered from the debauchery at the Hayeses' had glaced at the letter before dinner but she apparently lacked the energy to pry. "Oh to be young as you " was all she'd said before going to bed early.”

“After Henry's treatment of her she wasn't sure that men could honestly love women but she wanted to believe it. She wanted to be told pretty things and for the frightening clip of her heart to slow to something more reasonable.”

“Maybe Leland would appear there by chance in the morning his chin freshly shaved against his stiff new collar and upon seeing his love in such duress would spring into action. Maybe he would even carry her out like a princess in a bedtime story.”

“What was it about that short creature with her wild hair and spurious air of purity and why would anyone much less two men love her and to such disastrous ends.”

“Henry wondered not for the first time if her blood ran red or black.”

“She saw now that he was like an illusionist who captivated women with a little sleight of hand and once she had seen the mechanism it had lost all power for her.”

“Elizabeth who was only partially visible to her stared out the window very much awake as though she were contemplating the end of man.”

“Always stay sharp on railways and cruise ships for transit has a way of making everything clear.”

“There was plenty of life left and if he had to he would use it all to get her back. The time had passed for making promises to her-all that was left for him was to act.”

“Life was a short window and there was no sense in doing the wrong thing over and over even if it was so difficult to stop.”

“Henry was thinking of the younger Holland sister of the way she could go from being an impetuous girl to a knowing woman in a few seconds and never lose the stars in her eyes.”

“I tell you Schoonmaker she doesn't know what she has. That's the heart of it. She's like some wild creature who hasn't a clue the worth of its coat.”

“Henry closed his eyes and imagined the sweet petulant woundedness with which she had stared at him on the beach. He felt a little proud that she could love him.”

“They were all dressed in their finest as though life really were some magical stage play in which every moment ought to be illuminated with its own bright spotlight.”

“Good night.' Diana summoned all the dignity that she could manage in her bedraggled state and began to move back up the beach. Her dress was soaked and her stockings dotted with sand and her heart couldn't possibly withstand any more.”

“A man is made in the rough-and-tumble of the world a lady emerges from the flossy back rooms of her own imagination.”

“She found herself longing for home-not just for the hotel but for New York and all the real novels that she could lose herself in there.”

“That was how the heroine of a book would play it and Diana was still writing her own story the best heroines she'd always believed took their fate into their own hands.”

“She was full of some strange energy that morning. Her every movement had purpose and life and she seemed to find satisfaction in every little thing.”

“She was like a heroine in a novel that she herself was writing the character kept protesting that she was too strong for love and yet the narrator went on describing her desire.”

“Even when a girl is married she still never completely leaves her mother and father's home.”

“How she wished she had Elizabeth to herself for a little so they could discuss what Henry's real intentions were and also how high and mighty Penelope had acted at lunch and what a tremendous insult it was that she'd come at all and did anyone really think she was beautiful with those oversize features anyway.”

“She thought of Henry and Diana on the stoop gazing at each other with the confusion and sadness of two puppies who have just stumbled into their first puddle and not yet come to understand what has happened to them and found that she wanted to lie extravagantly.”

“A young lady's most natural ally is her sister although sometimes our own relatives are as inscrutable to us as an antipodean.”

“Henry turned his hat in his hands but went on looking at Diana in a way that made her want to crawl into his arms and stay there forever.”

“She was trying to sound tough and impatient, but she knew that vulnerable desire to be wooed was still brimming in her tone.”