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121 " The feeling of Sunday is the same everywhere, heavy, melancholy, standing still. Like when they say, As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. "
― Jean Rhys , Voyage in the Dark
122 " I try, but they always see through me. The passages will never lead anywhere, the doors will always be shut. "
― Jean Rhys , Good Morning, Midnight
123 " Vain, silly creature. Made for loving? Yes, but she'll have no lover, for I don't want her and she'll see no other. "
― Jean Rhys , Wide Sargasso Sea
124 " Saved, rescued, fished-up, half-drowned, out of the deep, dark river, dry clothes, hair shampooed and set. Nobody would know I had ever been in it. "
125 " Why did you make me want to live? Why did you do that to me? "
126 " Rain, forever raining. Drown me in sleep. And soon. "
127 " Let's say that you have this mystical right to cut my legs off. But the right to ridicule me afterwards because I am a cripple — no, that I think you haven't got. And that's the right you hold most dearly, isn't it? You must be able to despise the people you exploit. "
128 " ...poverty is the cause of many compromises. "
― Jean Rhys , Quartet
129 " He says: ‘it doesn’t matter. What I know is that I could do this with you’ — he makes a movement with his hands like a baker, kneading a loaf of bread — ‘and afterwards you’d be different. "
130 " I can remember every second of that morning, if I shut my eyes I can see the deep blue colour of the sky and the mango leaves, the pink and red hibiscus, the yellow handkerchief she wore around her head, tied in the Martinique fashion with the sharp points in front, but now I see everything still, fixed for ever like the colours in a stained-glass window. Only the clouds move. It was wrapped in a leaf, what she had given me, and I felt it cool and smooth against my skin. "
131 " The maid came in to light up and soon it would be time to go upstairs and change for dinner. I thought this woman one of the most fascinating I had ever seen. She had a long thin face, dead white, or powdered dead white. Her hair was black and lively under her cap, her eyes so small that the first time I saw her I thought she was blind. But wide open, they were the most astonishing blue, cornflower blue, no, more like sparks of blue fire. Then she would drop her eyelids and her face would go dead and lifeless again. I never tired of watching this transformation. "
― Jean Rhys , Sleep it Off Lady: Stories by Jean Rhys
132 " He says: ’For me, you see, I look at life like this: someone had come to me and asked me if I wished to be born I think I should have answered No. I’m sure I should have answered No. But no one asked me. I am here not through my will. Most things that happen to me – they are not my will either. And so that’s what I say to myself all the time: “You didn’t ask to be born, you didn’t make the world as it is, you didn’t make yourself as you are. Why torment yourself? Why not take life just as it comes? You have the right to; you are not one of the guilty ones. "
133 " I wanted it-like iron. "
― Jean Rhys , After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie
134 " All that is left in the world is an enormous machine, made of white steel. It has innumerable flexible arms, made of steel. Long, thin arms. At the end of each arm is an eye, the eyelashes stiff with mascara. When I look more closely I see that only some of the arms have these eyes–others have lights. The arms that carry the eyes and the arms that carry the lights are all extraordinarily flexible and very beautiful. But they grey sky, which is the background, terrifies me. . . . And the arms wave to an accompaniment of music and of song. Like this: 'Hotcha–hotcha–hotcha. . . .' And I know the music; I can sing the song. . . . "
135 " I can't sleep,' he said. 'Let me lie with my head on your silver breast. "
136 " …watching those damned dolls, thinking what a success they would have made of their lives if they had been women. Satin skin, silk hair, velvet eyes, sawdust heart — all complete. "
137 " That's all you're waiting for, isn't it? But no, you must have the slow death, the bloodless killing that leaves no stain on your conscience. . . . "
138 " I got quite used to changing that cheque, because you can get used to anything. You think: I'll never do that; and you find yourself doing it. "
― Jean Rhys , Smile Please: An Unfinished Autobiography
139 " ...she had ignored the Heidlers because she realized that she could afford to display coldness, and that no good ever comes from being too polite. "
140 " She watched through a slight mist a party of people who had just come into the restaurant, the movements of arms taking off overcoats, of legs in light-coloured stockings and fee in low-heeled shoes walking over the wooden floor to hide themselves under the tablecloths. "