Robert Matzen > Quotes

“There's a curious thing about pain, said Audrey. 'In the beginning, it's an enemy, it's something that you don't want to face or think about or deal with. Yet with time it becomes almost a friend. If you've lost someone you love very much, in the beginning you can't bear it, but as the years go by, the pain of losing them is what reminds you so vividly of them- that they were alive. My experiences and the people I lost in the war remain so vivid for me because of the pain.”
― Robert Matzen, Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II

“When my mother wanted to teach me a lesson about life,' said Luca Dotti, 'she never used stories about her career. She always told stories about the war. The war was very, very important to her. It made her who she was.”
― Robert Matzen, Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II

“Only those are fit to live who do not fear to die, and none are fit to die who have shrunk from the joy and duty of life. Those whom we have come to honor and, in God’s name to bless, never shrank from life, but welcomed it—welcomed life and its every aspect—loved life and were responsible to both its duties and its joys…. Each believed steadfastly in the glorious life to come.”
― Robert Matzen, Fireball: Carole Lombard and the Mystery of Flight 3

“She didn't forgive; nor did she hate.”
― Robert Matzen, Warrior: Audrey Hepburn

“When Jim found a bone that had been part of somebody’s hand, I understood that this wasn’t just Carole Lombard’s story. It was the pilot’s story and the co-pilot’s and the stewardess’s. It was the story of 15 Army Air Corps personnel who perished, men as young as 19 and as “old” as 28, and it was the story of three other civilians, all of whom died right there, on the spot where I stood shivering in the fading October sunshine at 7,700 feet. I started writing on the plane ride home and haven’t stopped since. I have had extreme good fortune in my research, accessing the complete Civil Aeronautics Board investigation, including the exhibits and testimony. I have examined the U.S. House of Representatives”
― Robert Matzen, Fireball: Carole Lombard and the Mystery of Flight 3

“us. So we sat around and made up stories, invented things. We entertained each other, and it helped carry our minds away from the horrible life we were leading.” In the midst of battle, it was a miracle the villa hadn’t been reduced to rubble or set ablaze, although, as she recounted, “Parts of our house kept being shot away.” She described Velp as “a shooting gallery between the two armies. Day and night the din continued until we grew so accustomed”
― Robert Matzen, Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II

“There's a curious thing about pain," said Audrey. "In the beginning, it's an enemy, it's something that you don't want to face or think about or deal with. Yet with time it becomes almost a friend. If you've lost someone you love very much, in the beginning you can't bear it, but as the years go by, the pain of losing them is what reminds you so vividly or them- that they were alive. My experiences and the people I lost in the war remains so vivid for me because of the pain.”
― Robert Matzen, Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II

“the years go by, the pain of losing them is what reminds you so vividly of them—that they were alive. My experiences and the people I lost in the war remain so vivid for me because of the pain.”
― Robert Matzen, Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II

“There's a curious thing about pain, said Audrey [Hepburn]. In the beginning it's an enemy. It's something that you don't want to face or think about or deal with. Yet with time it becomes almost a friend. If you lost someone you love very much, in the beginning you can't bear it, but as the years goes by, the pain of losing them is what reminds you so vividly of them that they were alive. My experiences and the people I lost in the war remain so vivid for me, because of the pain.”
― Robert Matzen, Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II

“Visser ’t Hooft also had unorthodox requests of his young volunteer aide, like calling upon Audrey to deliver the local Resistance newspaper, Oranjekrant. With paper pulp in extremely short supply, the Oranjekrant packed its volume of critical information into a surface area about the size of half a paper napkin. Audrey described having “to step in and deliver our tiny underground newspaper. I stuffed them in my woolen socks in my wooden shoes, got on my bike and delivered them.”
― Robert Matzen, Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II

“With young Bobby Stack as her coach, Lombard learned the ways of the shotgun. It was a skill that would pay off later as would her association with the boy who would grow up to be Academy Award-nominated actor Robert Stack. Until the day he died, Stack would be in love with her and never attempt to hide it.”
― Robert Matzen, Fireball: Carole Lombard and the Mystery of Flight 3

“my”
― Robert Matzen, Errol Flynn Slept Here: The Flynns, the Hamblens, Rick Nelson, and the Most Notorious House in Hollywood

“Each card was officially numbered, signed, and countersigned. It was logical that the Germans wanted to know”
― Robert Matzen, Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II

“Germans had anticipated the establishment of such a communication tool by the Allies and issued the “Measure for the Protection of the Dutch Population Against Untrue Information.” With this act, the occupied people would be kept away from “false news” and given information they could trust from officially sanctioned pro-Nazi stations broadcasting from the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, and”
― Robert Matzen, Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II

“than it had been at de Zijp—Ella and Audrey”
― Robert Matzen, Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II

“Thank you to the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force in Savannah, Georgia, and to the Second Air Division Memorial Library in Norwich,”
― Robert Matzen, Mission: Jimmy Stewart and the Fight for Europe

“He read the 23rd Psalm, then a poem.” The poem, by Grant Colfax Tullar, was one of Carole’s favorites: My life is but a weaving Between my Lord and me; I cannot choose the colors He worketh steadily. Oft times He weaveth sorrow And I, in foolish pride, Forget He sees the upper, And I the under side. Not til the loom is silent And the shuttles cease to fly, Shall God unroll the canvas”
― Robert Matzen, Fireball: Carole Lombard and the Mystery of Flight 3