Vera Caspary > Quotes

“There are a lot of people who haven't got the brains for their educations.”
― Vera Caspary, Laura

“In my case, self-absorption is completely justified. I have never discovered any other subject quite so worthy of my attention.”
― Vera Caspary, Laura

“Love is eternal. It has been the strongest motivation for human actions throughout history. Love is stronger than life. It reaches beyond the dark shadow of death.”
― Vera Caspary

“The magnificence of my skeleton is hidden by the weight of my flesh.”
― Vera Caspary, Laura

“Frightened people try to defend themselves by accusing others of their own motives.”
― Vera Caspary, Laura

“Life itself is contradictory. Only death is consistent.”
― Vera Caspary, Laura

“Nightmare with all its poetry and muddle takes place at the thin edge of time.”
― Vera Caspary, Evvie

“It's when you have friends that you can afford to be lonely. When you know a lot of people, loneliness becomes a luxury.”
― Vera Caspary, Laura

“Then, as the final contradiction, there remains the truth that she made a man of him as fully as man could be made of that stubborn clay. And when that frail manhood is threatened, when her own womanliness demands more than he can give, his malice seeks her destruction. But she is carved from Adam's rib, indestructible as legend, and no man will ever aim his malice with sufficient accuracy to destroy her.”
― Vera Caspary, Laura

“Why do you lie to me, darling? You know that I’ll stick with you to the end.”

I picked up a cigarette. He hurried to light it. “Don’t do that,” I said.

“Why not?”

“You can’t call me a murderer and light my cigarette.”
― Vera Caspary, Laura

“My mind was clear and penetrating at the time, for it was midnight, the hour at which I am most brave and most free.”
― Vera Caspary, Laura

“He wanted to protect his precious stick from my profane hands, so he brought out his malice without the garments of wit or beauty.”
― Vera Caspary, Laura

“the gentlemanly arts were not nearly so useful as proficiency in double-dealing, bootlicking, and pushing yourself ahead of the other fellow.”
― Vera Caspary, Laura

“The skeleton in my closet carries a hammer and sickle.”
― Vera Caspary

“Because I was moved by the sorry spectacle of a conventional young man thinking that he had become radically unconventional.”
― Vera Caspary

“This had wiped out the last trace of faith in my sister’s sex instruction; that it was beastly. If it was so beastly, I wondered, why do girls in books always become pregnant.”
― Vera Caspary, Evvie

“He came of a race of drinkers who look contemptuously upon an alcoholic content of twelve percent, unaware that the fermented grape works its enchantments more subtly than the distilled spirits of grain. I do not imply that he was drunk; let us say, rather, that the Tears of Christ opened his heart.”
― Vera Caspary, Laura

“A smile couldn't be brought into court as evidence. You couldn't arrest a man because he had trembled. Brown eyes had stolen a peep at gray eyes, so what? The tone of a voice was something that died with a word.”
― Vera Caspary, Laura

“Se preguntó con temor si la soledad tenía que ser la inevitable compañera de la sensibilidad”
― Vera Caspary, Laura

“Su enigma privado era respecto a la respuesta de esa pregunta que siempre atormentó a los enamorados: "¿Qué pudo ver ella en ese otro hombre?”
― Vera Caspary, Laura

“even if he’s a dick, you’ve met a man.”
― Vera Caspary, Laura

“For this was the age of The Girl. We had come out of the back parlor, out of the kitchen and nursery, we turned our backs upon the blackboards, shed aprons and paper cuffs. A war had freed us and given women a new kind of self-respect.
The adjective poor no longer preceded the once disreputable "working girl". It was honorable, it was jolly, it was even superior to be a "career girl".”
― Vera Caspary, Evvie

“In my case, self-absorption is completely justified.”
― Vera Caspary, Laura

“Nice girls who stayed at home and depended upon their fathers until they found husbands to support them could not afford the luxury of being modern. Freedom was less a moral than an economic fact.”
― Vera Caspary, Evvie