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Linen Quotes

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Linen Quotes

“Too often we only identify the crucial points in our lives in retrospect. At the time we are too absorbed in the fetid detail of the moment to spot where it is leading us. But not this time. I was experiencing one of my dad’s deafening moments. If my life could be understood as a meal of many courses (and let’s be honest, much of it actually was), then I had finished the starters and I was limbering up for the main event. So far, of course, I had made a stinking mess of it. I had spilled the wine. I had dropped my cutlery on the floor and sprayed the fine white linen with sauce. I had even spat out some of my food because I didn’t like the taste of it. “But it doesn’t matter because, look, here come the waiters. They are scraping away the debris with their little horn and steel blades, pulled with studied grace from the hidden pockets of their white aprons. They are laying new tablecloths, arranging new cutlery, placing before me great domed wine glasses, newly polished to a sparkle. There are more dishes to come, more flavors to try, and this time I will not spill or spit or drop or splash. I will not push the plate away from me, the food only half eaten. I am ready for everything they are preparing to serve me. Be in no doubt; it will all be fine.” (pp.115-6)”

TimeCoursesGraceFoodTasteWineMessPocketsMomentSauceLivesRetrospectWine GlassStartersDebrisLinenMealIdentifyFloorWaitersApronCutlerySplashAbsorbedPlateCrucial PointsTableclothDeafening MomentsMain Event
Book:Eating Crow: A Novel of Apology
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“The ancients were destitute of many of the conveniences of life which have been invented or improved by the progress of industry; and the plenty of glass and linen has diffused more real comforts among the modern nations of Europe than the senators of Rome could derive from all the refinements of pompous or sensual luxury.”

Has BeensRealNationsHistoryProgressModernIndustryComfortEuropeGlassesLuxuryPlentySensualRomeSenatorsConvenienceRoman EmpireRefinementPompousDestituteLinen
Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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“With two sons born eighteen months apart, I operated mainly on automatic pilot through the ceaseless activity of their early childhood. I remember opening the refrigerator late one night and finding a roll of aluminum foil next to a pair of small red tennies. Certain that I was responsible for the refrigerated shoes, I quickly closed the door and ran upstairs to make sure I had put the babies in their cribs instead of the linen closet.”

TwoRememberNightCertainNextBornDoorsChildhoodSonBabyMonthsActivityFindingsLateRedResponsibleShoesOpeningRanPairsPilotsClosetsOne NightEighteenRefrigeratorsUpstairsEarly ChildhoodLinenFoilsAluminumAluminum Foil
Book:American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie
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“A cat is a regency gentleman--elegant of pose, exquisite of manner, with spotless linen and an enthusiasm for bare knuckle fights, rampaging love affairs, duels by moonlight and the singing of glees. He expects immaculate service from his domestic staff, and possesses a range of invective that would make a navy blanch.”

MenFightingSingingCatAffairEnthusiasmRangeGentlemanStaffElegantNavyMoonlightExquisiteLove AffairGleeKnucklesImmaculateLinen
Author:Pam Brown
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“Personal sympathy has helped me on very much. My husband from first to last has watched every picture with delight, and it is my daily habit to run to him with every glass upon which a fresh glory is newly stamped, and to listen to his enthusiastic applause. This habit of running into the dining-room with my wet pictures has stained such an immense quantity of table linen with nitrate of silver, indelible stains, that I should have been banished from any less indulgent household.”

ShouldFirstsHas BeensRunningLastsRoomsHabitHusbandGloryShould HaveTablesGlassesDelightSilverMy HusbandQuantityWetHouseholdImmenseEnthusiasticApplauseShould Have BeenStainsDiningIndelibleDining RoomsLinenDaily Habits
Author:Julia Margaret Cameron
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“I go to a hotel and try to get there by 5:30 in the morning. I keep a dictionary, a thesaurus, a bible, a deck of playing cards, a bottle of sherry, and stacks of yellow sticky pads. I shut myself in for six, seven hours. I have an arrangement with the hotel that no one may go in my room. After three or four months, they might slip notes under my door like, "Dear Ms. Angelou, please let us change the linens. We think they might be molding." It's probably true. I let them in if they promise not to touch anything other then the bed.”

IfsThinkingTryingMayMightThreeHoursRoomsMorningFourDoorsMonthsPleasePromiseBedSixNotesSevenDearCardsHotelBottlesYellowSlipsArrangementsDictionaryDeckPadsStickyLinenPlaying CardsMoldingSherryThesaurusAngelou
Author:Maya Angelou
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“All morning, Spence has been a well-oiled machine of activity. Everyone doing her bit, quietly and efficiently. It's strange how deliberate people are after a death. All the indecision suddenly vanishes into clear, defined moments--changing the linens, choosing a dress or a hymn, the washing up, the muttering of prayers. All the small, simple, conscious acts of living a sudden defense against the dying we do every day.”

PeopleWellsHas BeensMomentsBitsPrayerSimpleMorningClearDyingStrangeActivityConsciousMachinesDressesDefenseDefinedDeliberateWashingHymnsIndecisionLinenMutteringSmall SimpleWell Oiled Machines
Book:A Great and Terrible Beauty
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“I wish we could spend July by the sea, browning ourselves and feeling water-weighted hair flow behind us from a dive. I wish our gravest concerns were the summer gnats. I wish we were hungry for hot dogs and dopes, and it would be nice to smell the starch of summer linens and the faint odor of talc in blistering summer bath houses ... We could lie in long citoneuse beams of the five o'clock sun on the plage at Juan-les-Pins and hear the sound of the drum and piano being scooped out to sea by the waves.”

LongFeelingsWould BeLyingHouseWishSoundWaterBehindsSunFiveNiceSeaDogHairSummerConcernFlowHotWaveSmellHungryClockPianoBeing NiceBathsPinsJulyBeamDopeOdorHot DogJuanLinenGnats
Author:Zelda Fitzgerald
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“She drinks pints of coffee and writes little observations and ideas for stories with her best fountain pen on the linen-white pages of expensive notebooks. Sometimes, when it's going badly, she wonders if what she believes to be a love of the written word is really just a fetish for stationery.”

IfsWritingBelieveLittlesIdeasSometimesStoriesWhiteWonderWrittenDrinkPagesCoffeeObservationExpensivePensFountainNotebookWritten WordFetishPintsLinenFountain PensStationery
Book:One Day
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“Why is it we want so badly to memorialize ourselves? Even while we're still alive. We wish to assert our existence, like dogs peeing on fire hydrants. We put on display our framed photographs, our parchment diplomas, our silver-plated cups; we monogram our linen, we carve our names on trees, we scrawl them on washroom walls. It's all the same impulse. What do we hope from it? Applause, envy, respect? Or simply attention, of any kind we can get? At the very least we want a witness. We can't stand the idea of our own voices falling silent finally, like a radio running down.”

WantKindStillsIdeasRunningFallNamesWishVoiceExistenceAttentionFireAliveTreeDogWallSilentPhotographRadioEnvyCupsWitnessImpulseSilverDisplayApplauseFramedDiplomaLinenMonograms
Book:The Blind Assassin: A Novel
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“The first trip I remember taking was on the train from Virginia up to New York City, watching the summertime countryside rolling past the window. They used white linen tablecloths in the dining car in those days, and real silver. I love trains to this day. Maybe that was the beginning of my fixation with leisurely modes of travel.”

FirstsRealPastRememberUsedWhiteCitiesCarNew YorkWindowTrainSilverThis DayNew York CityRollingVirginiaCountrysideDiningSummertimeFixationLinen
Author:Billy Campbell
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“This is what I want. I want people to take care of me. I want them to force comfort upon me. I want the soft-pillow feeling that I associate with memories of being ill when I was younger, soft pillows and fresh linens and satin-edged blankets and hot chocolate. It's not so much the comfort itself as knowing there's someone who wants to take care of you.”

PeopleWantFeelingsCareForceMemoriesKnowingComfortHotIllTake CareChocolateAssociatesPillowBlanketSatinLinenTake Care Of MeHot Chocolate
Book:Chime
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“Ned was clad in a white linen doublet with the direwolf of Stark on the breast; his black wool cloak was fastened at the collar by his silver hand of office. Black and white and grey, all the shades of truth.”

HandsBlackWhiteOfficeBreastsSilverShadeBlack And WhiteGreyStarksCollarsCloaksWoolLinen
Book:George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones 5-Book Boxed Set (Song of Ice and Fire Series): A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, and and A Dance with Dragons
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“Sometimes,' he whispered at last, 'sometimes, I dream I am singing, and I wake from it with my throat aching.' He couldn't see her face, or the tears that prickled at the corners of her eyes. 'What do you sing?' she whispered back. She heard the shush of the linen pillow as he shook his head. 'No song I've ever heard, or know,' he said softly. 'But I know I'm singing it for you.”

KnowsSaidSometimesDreamEyeLastsFacesSongHeardTearsSingingCornersThroatHer EyesPillowLinen
Book:The Outlander Series Bundle: Books 5, 6, 7, and 8: The Fiery Cross, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, An Echo in the Bone, Written in My Own Heart's Blood
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