The tears I gratified him with were fake ones. Ones that set off my green eyes the way diamonds set off emeralds. And it worked. If you dazzled a man with green eyes, he will be so hypnotized that he wonโt notice there is someone inside the eyes spying on him. โ Vida Winters Page 268
Diane SetterfieldA birth is not really a beginning. Our lives at the start are not really our own but only the continuation of someone else's story.
Diane SetterfieldPeople whose lives are not balanced by a healthy love of money suffer from an appalling obsession with personal integrity.
Diane SetterfieldAll children mythologise their birth. It is a universal trait. You want to know someone? Heart, mind and soul? Ask him to tell you about when he was born. What you get wonโt be the truth: it will be a story. And nothing is more telling than a story.
Diane SetterfieldThere was no single moment when I thought, Aha! What a great idea! Rather there was a slow and gradual accumulation of numerous small ideas.
Diane SetterfieldEvery so often I take out a volume and read a page or two. After all, reading is looking after in a manner of speaking. Though they're not old enough to be valuable for their age alone, nor important enough to be sought after by collectors, my charges are dear to me, even if, as often as not, they are as dull on the inside as on the outside. No matter how banal the contents, there is always something that touches me. For someone now dead once thought these words significant enough to write them down.
Diane Setterfield