Yes, Louise Brooks was beautiful and intelligent, and she could be very funny, but obviously there was a deep insecurity there, a real destructive rage and immaturity.

It's like swimming, underwater, this whole year. I just close my eyes. hold my breath, and keep kicking.

My mother says that when Mrs. Rowley is mean, which is generally the case, it is really because she is just unhappy, and who could blame her with a husband like that . . . She says this is really the only reason people are ever mean--they have something hurting inside of them, a claw of unhappiness scratching at their hearts, and it hurts them so much that sometimes they have to push it right out of their mouths to scratch someone else, just to give themselves a rest, a moment of relief.

Someone needs to give the Pope thirteen babies. Just for a week or so. See how he likes no birth control then.

I don't think I've ever tried on a corset, though a certain bridesmaid's dress did require a torturous bustier that will stay forever burned in my sensory memory.

Worrying was painful .... but compared to the alternative, a privilege

You could push people away, past their limits, even accidentally, and then it was just too late to get them back