“As soon as I turned the key I saw it hanging, the color of fire and sunset. the colour of flamboyant flowers. ‘If you are buried under a flamboyant tree, ‘ I said, ‘your soul is lifted up when it flowers. Everyone wants that.’She shook her head but she did not move or touch me.”
Jean Rhys“Left alone, Miss Verney felt so old, lonely and helpless that she began to cry. No builder would tackle that shed, not for any price she could afford. But crying relieved her and she soon felt quite cheerful again. It was ridiculous to brood, she told herself.”
Jean Rhys, Sleep it Off Lady: Stories by Jean Rhys“Almost any book was better than life, Audrey thought. Or rather, life as she was living it. Of course, life would soon change, open out, become quite different. You couldn't go on if you didn't hope that, could you? But for the time being there was no doubt that it was pleasant to get away from it. And books could take her away.”
Jean Rhys, Sleep it Off Lady: Stories by Jean Rhys“Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.”
Jean Rhys“I am the only real truth I know.”
Jean Rhys“Do you think that too," she said, "that I have slept too long in the moonlight?”
Jean Rhys“At twenty-four she imagined with dread that she was growing old.”
Jean Rhys“She had left me thirsty and all my life would be thirst and longing for what I had lost before I found it.”
Jean Rhys“Anything you like; anything I like... No past to make us sentimental, no future to embarrass us”
Jean Rhys“One realized all sorts of things. The value of an illusion, for instance, and that the shadow can be more important than the substance. All sorts of things.”
Jean Rhys, Quartet“Stephan was secretive and a liar, but he was a very gentle and expert lover. She was the petted, cherished child, the desired mistress, the worshipped, perfumed goddess. She was all these things to Stephan - or so he made her believe.”
Jean Rhys, Quartet