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The Lonely Hearts Hotel QUOTES

The Lonely Hearts Hotel QUOTES

1 " Women were still strange and inscrutable creatures. Men didn’t understand them. And women didn’t understand themselves either. It was always a performance of some sort. Everywhere you went, it was like there was a spotlight shining down on your head. You were on a stage when you were on the trolley. You were being judged and judged and judged. Every minute of your performance was supposed to be incredible and outstanding and sexy.
You were often only an ethical question away from being a prostitute. "

― Heather O'Neill , The Lonely Hearts Hotel

2 " That was desire messing with physics: putting its finger on the record and then slowing it down, making sure you heard every word spoken, and memorized it. "

― Heather O'Neill , The Lonely Hearts Hotel

3 " Being a woman was a trap. Something would bring you down before you turned twenty-three. The only time the world shows you any favor, or cuts you any slack, is during that very brief period of courtship where the world is trying to fuck you for the first time. "

― Heather O'Neill , The Lonely Hearts Hotel

4 " My conversation is probably something like the rain. On some days it pours, and then on other days there's just a clear sky- not a word in sight. "

― Heather O'Neill , The Lonely Hearts Hotel

5 " If there was one thing responsible for ruining lives, it was love. "

― Heather O'Neill , The Lonely Hearts Hotel

6 " Everything written by any woman was written by all women, because they all benefited from it. If one woman was a genius, it was proof that it was possible for the rest of them. "

― Heather O'Neill , The Lonely Hearts Hotel

7 " A young girl’s body is the most dangerous place in the world, as it is the spot where violence is most likely to be enacted. "

― Heather O'Neill , The Lonely Hearts Hotel

8 " Many of them, like him, would never grow old enough to understand that you only go from one hardship to another. And that the best we can hope from life is that it is a wonderful depression. "

― Heather O'Neill , The Lonely Hearts Hotel

9 " Perhaps the most dangerous people in the world are the ones who believe in right and wrong but what they ascribe to as “right” and “wrong” is completely insane. They are bad with the conviction that they are good. That idea is the impetus behind evil. "

― Heather O'Neill , The Lonely Hearts Hotel

10 " Every day the average person will witness six miracles. But it isn’t that we don’t believe in miracles—we just don’t believe that miracles are miracles. There are so many miracles all around us. "

― Heather O'Neill , The Lonely Hearts Hotel

11 " She liked the idea of being ruined. She was curious to see what would happen to her if no man would marry her. It seemed like the most likely way to have an adventure. "

― Heather O'Neill , The Lonely Hearts Hotel

12 " Fireflies danced around her like embers after someone has thrown a log into the stove. "

― Heather O'Neill , The Lonely Hearts Hotel

13 " The piano was just now telling me how it feels so odd when it rains. The rain can cause you to suddently feel guilty for all the tiny crimes you have committed, like not telling your friend that you love her. "

― Heather O'Neill , The Lonely Hearts Hotel

14 " Men were taught to have so much pride, to go out into the world and make something of themselves. This Depression was deeply humiliating. Since women were taught that they were worthless, they took poverty and hardship less personally. "

― Heather O'Neill , The Lonely Hearts Hotel

15 " There is no real dignity in any of these costumes. If I'm a maid, I do what the owner of the house tells me to do. If I'm a nurse, I do whatever the doctor tells me to do. What are we as women, other than barnacles that attach themselves to higher life forms in some pathetic attempt to clean up messes? Tidy up what men have left behind- make the world a lovelier, better place for men. I would like to play a part in which I don't have a superior. "

― Heather O'Neill , The Lonely Hearts Hotel

16 " Pierrot knew that everything in the world was alive. Everything was composed of molecules that shook and vibrated and hummed. There was no such thing as permanence. Even the most stalwart object—such as a statue in the park—was struggling to keep itself together. "

― Heather O'Neill , The Lonely Hearts Hotel

17 " The soft sound of the rain on the rooftop sounded like young girls sneaking off in stockings to elope. She felt lonesome for Pierrot. "

― Heather O'Neill , The Lonely Hearts Hotel

18 " She certainly seemed crazy. But she simultaneously made them think that there was nothing in the world wrong with being a crazy girl. And that maybe the world needed a couple more crazy girls. "

― Heather O'Neill , The Lonely Hearts Hotel

19 " But although she interacted with so many people during the day, no one could actually say that they were close to her. There is an aloofness to the permanently heartbroken, a secrecy. There was something impenetrable about her. There was a door that she had closed, which no one could get in. "

― Heather O'Neill , The Lonely Hearts Hotel

20 " My body never belonged to me. You must have felt that too. If someone wanted to beat me, they could beat me. If someone wanted to lock me in the closet, they could. Childhood is such a perverse injustice, I don't know how anyone survives it without going crazy. But I have a chance to turn the tables. I have a chance to run the streets and be a wealthy woman. No one is ever, ever, ever going to treat me with disrespect again. "

― Heather O'Neill , The Lonely Hearts Hotel