Anne Fortier

“Was I insane? Maybe. But then, there were many different kinds of insanity. Aunt Rose had always taken for granted that the whole world was in a state of constantly fluctuating madness, and that a neurosis was not an illness, but a fact of life, like pimples. Some have more, some have less, but only truly abnormal people have none at all. This commonsense philosophy had consoled me many times before, and it did now, too.”

“There is lust and then there is love. They are related, but still very different things. To indulge in one requires little but honeyed speech and a change of clothes; to obtain the other, by contrast, a man must give up his rib. In return, his woman will undo the sin of Eve, and bring him back into Paradise.”

“Face à la mort, les hommes deviennent les amoureux les plus transis.”

“La nuit appartient aux audacieux, aux fous et aux artistes, qui sont souvent les mêmes.”

“.... "death turns all men into great lovers. Would that they were equally ardent while the lady was still alive!”

“That is the lightest coffin I have ever carried," observed one of Romeo's companions. "Your [bell]ringer must have been a very slender man, Friar Lorenzo. Make sure to choose a fat one next time that he may stand more firmly in that windy bell tower.”

“Peppo!" I yelled, pulling at my cousin's suspenders. "I really don't want to be arrested, okay?""Don't worry!" Peppo turned a corner and accelerated as he spoke. "I go too fast for police!”

“For as long as I could remember, he had never worn a single piece of clothing that could be considered casual. Khaki shorts and golf shirts, to Umberto, were the garments of men who have no virtues left, not even shame.”

“as a bird swoops down on it's prey, and assumes this land bound wretch into heaven, so did romeo steal her lips before they fled him again. suspended somewhere between cherubs and devils, his quarry ceased to buck, and he spread his wings wide and let the rising wind carry them off across the sky, until even the predator himself had lost every hope of returning home. within that one embrace, [he] became aware of a feeling of certainty he had not thought possible for anyone - even the virtuous. with her in his arms, all other women, past, present, and future, simply ceased to exist.”

“You were right and I was wrong. When life hurts more than death, it is not worth living.”

“Perhaps. But the firstborn of hope is tragedy.”

“By the time we left college, I had become my own image: a dandelion in the flower bed of society. Kinda cute, but still a weed.”

“Everything we say is a story. But nothing we say is just a story.”

“After the dress rehearsal that afternoon, someone had misplaced the vial of poison, and for lack of better, Romeo would have to commit suicide by eating Tic Tacs.”

“I should have never taught you girls to read! I suspect you have been reading the Bible behind my back-that is enough to fill a girl's head with folly?”