“Long ago, I had learned that you could imagine anything you wanted, that the space inside your head belonged to you. Furnished and decorated and inhabited only by you, so that your insides teemed and seethed while your outward aspect remained serene.” ImaginationFreedomHead Space Book:Cocoa Beach Source: Cocoa Beach
“...humans are corrupt. We are all of us selfish, ignorant beasts, loyal only to ourselves and our own kind, interested only in getting a leg up on others, whether it's money or status or moral virtue. That's why we've got religion, to discover our better angels.... [Vivian Schuyler]” ReligionHuman Nature Book:Our Woman in Moscow Source: Our Woman in Moscow
“Because you learn things when you talk to people, especially people who aren't like you. You learn what a goddamned polyglot race we are, we marvelous human beings. Some people are friendly. Some people are gruff. Some want security. Others want independence. Some want the government to run things. Some want to run things on their own. Some people need a helping hand. Some people need a kick in the pants. Some want to live and to die in the same small town. Some want to ramble the wide world. Some are content with little. Some cannot stop striving. Some want to life beside a true love, to worship a single god. Some crave a universe of loves, a universe of gods. I could go on and on. The differences between them, between me and you, between you and the woman sitting next to you at the hairdresser, wearing that dress you'd never wear in a million years, reading that book you wouldn't touch. The genius of politics, of people like Frank, is to link them all, understand them all, to represent them all. Not just the ones you agree with, the ones that think and act like you do.” PoliticsHuman Nature Book:Tiny Little Thing Source: Tiny Little Thing
“All men are brutes.” MenBruteMan S Nature Book:The Secret Life of Violet Grant Source: The Secret Life of Violet Grant
“Men fall over themselves for a beautiful woman, women fall over themselves for a rich man. So who's the more greedy? At least money is useful. And it doesn't fade with time.” LovePoorBeautyRichGreedHusbands Lovers Author:Beatriz Williams
“She loved too much. She staked everything on people she loved. When they were gone, it destroyed her.” LoveLoss Book:The Golden Hour Source: The Golden Hour
“Well, that's the thing about choices, isn't it? There are always more to make. I've never seen a street where you couldn't cross to the other side.” TruthChoices Book:The Forgotten Room Source: The Forgotten Room
“Her father had admired her mother without ever truly understanding her. And her mother--her mother had relied on her father without appreciating him. There had been a gulf between them that couldn't be bridged by all the goodwill in the world.” Parents Book:The Forgotten Room Source: The Forgotten Room
“One can follow the sun, of course, but I have always thought that it is best to know some winter, too, so that the summer, when it arrives, is the more gratefully received.” SummerWinter Book:Along the Infinite Sea Source: Along the Infinite Sea
“There's something about the smells of your childhood, isn't there? ... You still remember those small sublime joys with an ache of longing because there's no getting it back, is there? You cannot return to a state of innocence.” Childhood Book:The Summer Wives Source: The Summer Wives
“What makes you Vivian.' I liked the way he said my name, all throaty on the V's, all stretched to its rightful three syllables.” Pretty Words Book:The Secret Life of Violet Grant Source: The Secret Life of Violet Grant
“Except for a daily visit with the other doctors on our morning rounds, I hadn't seen or spoken to him. But that didn't mean I didn't miss him like the winter earth missed the sun.” Pretty WordsPretty Analogy Book:The Forgotten Room Source: The Forgotten Room
“This was what she couldn't get enough of, not if she lived forever: Harry on her skin, Harry's grateful kisses on her neck, Harry and Olive, teeming and sated, brimming over with each other, as if this house and this world had been built by God's hands for their love alone.” LovePassionPretty Words Book:The Forgotten Room Source: The Forgotten Room
“(He remembered resting against her afterward, listening to the beat of her heart, taking her breath into his lungs, and thinking that he was the luckiest man in the world, that you couldn't connect with a human being any more perfectly than that. And sure enough, he'd been right.)” LoveLoversPretty Words Book:The Forgotten Room Source: The Forgotten Room
“I can't bring myself to open my eyes. I am an ember, glowing from the inside out. The dark and silent room keeps everything else at bay, every sensation, except the two of us, Nick and Lily, who have just made love.” Pretty Words Book:A Hundred Summers Source: A Hundred Summers
“I was hazy with wine, hazy with Nick. I nestled into my seat and marveled at his endlessness, only inches away, his infinite capacity to shelter me.” Pretty Words Book:A Hundred Summers Source: A Hundred Summers
“Vati, Vati, I miss you so. She didn't say it aloud, but her throat vibrated with the words.” Pretty WordsBrilliant Description Book:The Forgotten Room Source: The Forgotten Room
“[In marriage you] go through stages, like acts in a play. Act One, you fall in love, and the birds twitter and the bees go buzz, and you'll never love somebody else as long as you both shall live, amen. Act Two, enter the baby carriage, and all of a sudden he catches sight of a pair of firm young tits and figures life is short. Act Three...you realize there's no point letting the husbands have all the fun. [Vivian Schuyler]” Marriage Book:Our Woman in Moscow Source: Our Woman in Moscow