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Jean Rhys

Jean Rhys Quotes

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Famous Jean Rhys Quotes

“I think that the desire to be cruel and to hurt (with words because any other way might be dangerous to ourself) is part of human nature. Parties are battles (most parties), a conversation is a duel (often). Everybody's trying to hurt first, to get in the dig that will make him or her feel superior, feel triumph.”

ThinkingWayFeelsTryingFirstsHumansMightDesireHurtPartyDangerousHuman NatureBattleConversationSuperiorsTriumphUnkindness
Book:The letters of Jean Rhys
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“She could give herself up to the written word as naturally as a good dancer to music or a fine swimmer to water. The only difficulty was that after finishing the last sentence she was left with a feeling at once hollow and uncomfortably full. Exactly like indigestion.”

GivingBookFeelingsLastsReadingLeftWaterWrittenFineDifficultySentencesDancerHollowFinishingBook ReadingWritten WordSwimmerIndigestion
Book:Tales of the wide Caribbean
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“I hated the mountains and the hills, the rivers and the rain. I hated the sunsets of whatever colour, I hated its beauty and its magic and the secret I would never know. I hated its indifference and the cruelty which was part of its loveliness. Above all I hated her. For she belonged to the magic and the loveliness. She had left me thirsty and all my life would be thirst and longing for what I had lost before I found it.”

KnowsWould BeFoundLostLeftSecretMagicMountainRainRiversLongingCrueltyHillsHatedIndifferenceColourSunsetThirstThirstyLoveliness
Author:Jean Rhys
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“But why do you want to talk to me?' He is going to say: 'Because you look so kind,' or 'Because you look so beautiful and kind,' or, subtly, 'Because you look as if you'll understand....' He says: 'Because I think you won't betray me.' I had meant to get this mean to talk to me and tell me all about it, and then be so devastatingly English that perhaps I should manage to hurt him a little in return for all the many times I've been hurt.... 'Because I think you won't betray me, because I think you won't betray me....' Now it won't be so easy.”

IfsThinkingWantShouldLooksKindMeanLittlesBeautifulEasyHurtReturnManageBetrayTalk To MeBeen HurtI've Been Hurt
Author:Jean Rhys
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“My life, which seems so simple and monotonous, is really a complicated affair of cafés where they like me and cafés where they don't, streets that are friendly, streets that aren't, rooms where I might be happy, rooms where I shall never be, looking-glasses I look nice in, looking-glasses I don't, dresses that will be lucky, dresses that won't, and so on.”

LooksSeemsMightSimpleRoomsNiceStreetsLuckyDressesAffairGlassesComplicatedLike MeFriendlyMonotonous
Author:Jean Rhys
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“Every word I say has chains round its ankles; every thought I think is weighted with heavy weights. Since I was born, hasn't every word I've said, every thought I've thought, everything I've done, been tied up, weighted, chained? And mind you, I know that with all this I don't succeed. Or I succeed in flashes only too damned well. ...But think how hard I try and how seldom I dare. Think - and have a bit of pity. That is, if you ever think, you apes, which I doubt.”

IfsThinkingKnowsTryingMindWellsSaidHardDoneBitsBornDoubtSucceedWeightRoundsDareHeavyPityChainsTiedFlashApesAnklesChainedTied UpHeavy Weights
Author:Jean Rhys
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“I watched her die many times. In my way, not in hers. In sunlight, in shadow, by moonlight, by candlelight. In the long afternoons when the house was empty. Only the sun was there to keep us company. We shut him out. And why not? Very soon she was as eager for what's called loving as I was - more lost and drowned afterwards.”

WayLongDiesHouseLostCompanySunShadowEmptyMy WayWhy NotAfternoonSunlightMoonlightCandlelight
Book:Wide Sargasso Sea
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