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The Swans of Fifth Avenue

Book by Melanie Benjamin · 4 quotes · New York, 1960s, Fear

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The Swans of Fifth Avenue Quotes

“So I still like to see you, my friend. I still like to sit in La Côte Basque and sip wine and eat fine food and indulge in our memories—the good ones, the ones we want to remember. So let’s do that. That’s the story we can tell ourselves, at night when we can’t sleep. We can tell ourselves that there is one other person in the world who sees it in the same way, who remembers. Who remembers her. Babe. And Gloria. And even Truman, I guess, as he was, back then. Our fun, gossipy friend. Our entrée into a different world, for a time. An amusing, brief little time. A time before it was fashionable to tell the truth, and the world grew sordid from too much honesty.”

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“TELL ME—WHA T IS YOUR greatest fear? There was a long silence. No sounds but the low hum of the pool filter, the faraway grazing of a lawn mower, and the determined clip clip of a gardener on the other side of some tall azalea bushes, trimming away. “That someone will see,” Babe whispered, while at the same time, Truman murmured, “That someone will find me out." “That no one will love me,” Truman added after another moment. While at the same time, Babe admitted, “And that I’ll never be loved, truly.”

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“I understand, Bill. Because I tell myself a lot of stories to help me sleep at night. Stories about how Babe was my dearest friend, and I never betrayed her. Stories about how you and I had a great love, not just an occasional roll in the hay whenever she was out of town. Stories about how wonderful life was back then, when none of us told each other the truth, but so what? It was all so beautiful, wasn’t it? It was all so lovely and gracious. Not like it is now.”

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