They were all dressed in their finest as though life really were some magical stage play in which every moment ought to be illuminated with its own bright spotlight.

It is a truth universally acknowledge that there will always be a gentleman to dance with, except at just the moment when you require one most.

She was full of some strange energy that morning. Her every movement had purpose and life and she seemed to find satisfaction in every little thing.

He was a mystery to her, and every time she tried to solve him it caused her a little more pain. But when she tired to give him up he pursued her in her thoughts, stronger each time.

She found herself longing for home-not just for the hotel but for New York and all the real novels that she could lose herself in there.

Even when a girl is married she still never completely leaves her mother and father's home.

Her heart the damned thing had begun to race and she only hoped that the rapid inflation and deflation of her chest wasn't visible beneath her fitted bodice.

A man is made in the rough-and-tumble of the world a lady emerges from the flossy back rooms of her own imagination.

Always stay sharp on railways and cruise ships for transit has a way of making everything clear.

She was trying to sound tough and impatient, but she knew that vulnerable desire to be wooed was still brimming in her tone.

Life was a short window and there was no sense in doing the wrong thing over and over even if it was so difficult to stop.

Lifeboats are decked out on the sides of a ship waiting for when disaster strikes, faith on the other hand is a part of you for whenever.

A bloody guy in overalls, wearing a straw hat, began chasing us. He held a saw, pointing it at us. We were gonna die! --The Body By the Tree

I heard the tongues of angels and the tongues of men and it all sounded no different to me.

One reproduces only that which is striking; that is to say, the necessary. Thus, one's recollections and inventions are liberated from the tyranny which nature exerts.

Perhaps I'm dead. Perhaps this is all it will be. The living will carry on in their world – touching, walking. And I'll continue in this empty world, tapping soundlessly on the glass between us.

I am one of the heretics who believes that art must be enjoyed first and analyzed later.

If you have ever gone into the woods with me, I must love you very much.

In Charleston, more than elsewhere, you get the feeling that the twentieth century is a vast, unconscionable mistake.

Among real friends there is no rivalry or jealousy of one another, but they are satisfied and contented alike whether they are equal or one of them is superior.

When it sort of finally sets in that you're not going to be doing that anymore... it's disappointing.