Pamela Hamilton > Quotes

“Someone has to unbutton the stuffed shirts of the beau monde.”
― Pamela Hamilton, Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale

“What did your husband do to make you leave him?”

“He breathed.”
― Pamela Hamilton, Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale

“I suppose by now the boys are off smoking cigars and looking for balls,” Dorothy said with one corner of her lip turned up.

"They could use some,” Clare lobbed back.”
― pamela hamilton, Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale

“The rest of us have to play along with God’s little game of Russian roulette, His eternal lesson to live it up while you can. And far be it for me to turn away from God—let’s get a drink.”
― Pamela Hamilton, Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale

“He’ll marry me within a year—such a vague commitment, as if he’s putting a suit on hold at Bergdorf’s.”
― Pamela Hamilton, Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale

“It was that magic of youth, hard to contain and impossible to recapture in midlife when one looks back wistfully, yearning to ignite that part of them that was burning out like a flickering candle in ceaseless summer storms.”
― Pamela Hamilton, Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale

“I couldn’t seduce him with charm, so I slayed him with intellect.”
― Pamela Hamilton, Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale

“Heartless gossips pose as professional press, they get a few quotes and run with the story like Seabiscuit to the finish line. They’re nothing more than conmen, salesmen, pitchmen, pompous men professing to be of public service—and they have the freedom to do so. There’s no price to pay.”
― pamela hamilton, Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale

“I sensed the unsettling aura, the stillness giving way to silent pandemonium of a crowd that could no longer be seen—the nights of posh black-tie parties, laughter and scandal, champagne and cigarettes long since gone.”
― Pamela Hamilton, Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale

“She had seen the faces of shattered dreams, the zippy Ziegfeld girls, the doll-faced divorcées, the wellborn wives in opulent ivory towers, knocked down and knocked right out.”
― Pamela Hamilton, Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale

“And what else is one to do when presented so unexpectedly with such stupefying intrigue but continue turning the pages back in time, a time when a wave of excess carried the American aristocracy and titled Europeans to grand ships and grander estates for extravagant parties never before seen and never seen thereafter. They stumbled onto the laps of married lovers, champagne spilling onto polished marble floors, betrayal and indecency dressed up in custom-made suits and an air of refinement honed since birth. This was the Jazz Age. The Crazy Years. Les Années Folles, as she often said.”
― Pamela Hamilton, Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale

“The early days of springtime in New York were reliably fickle with heat rising and cool wind blowing, with shadows and rain and shimmering sunlight falling on blooms, the city one step ahead and setting the rhythm for residents trying to keep its pace. In a topsy-turvy continuous motion, it reminded them they’d somersault and skid and finally turn in the direction they ought to go.”
― Pamela Hamilton, Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale

“I shall never be quite happy until New York becomes a place to which I go often, rather than leave seldom.”
― Pamela Hamilton, Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale

“Three months of moonlit nights and candlelit dinners under the starry Manhattan sky, of high times with friends and galas with acquaintances, of breakfasts at dawn and outings on Sunday afternoons, and evening strolls in Central Park where they rode the carousel and stole kisses in the Belvedere Castle like teenagers too young for love.”
― Pamela Hamilton, Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale

“The Great Depression cast shadows on the city. The roar of the Twenties had quieted to a soulful cry of the blues.”
― Pamela Hamilton

“You can be so courageous when you’re encouraging others to step into the fire.”
― pamela hamilton, Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale

“I think we should be able to make our own choices and not be judged by any of them.

"I agree, Dorothy, even if the Catholic Church doesn’t.”
― Pamela Hamilton

“In the empty halls of the castle now abandoned and silenced by time, they waltzed cheek to cheek over the ancient floor of dust with unknown stories buried deep in the soil below.”
― Pamela Hamilton, Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale

“At first glance her beauty was striking—fresh-faced and delicate with large eyes, her little black dress cinched at the waist, her hair pinned in a chignon. At second glance, her deep, intelligent eyes were entrancing, still vivid on newspapers yellowed from light and air and lined with age that Fate didn’t offer to her.”
― pamela hamilton, Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale

“Forevermore is shorter than you think.”
― Pamela Hamilton, Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale

“Hemingway has an unquenchable thirst for women and war. You can feel satisfied knowing you’re the only one who gave him both.”
― Pamela Hamilton, Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale

“I suppose by now the boys are off smoking cigars and looking for
balls,” Dorothy said with one corner of her lip turned up. “

They could use some,” Clare lobbed back.”
― Pamela Hamilton, Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale

“An air of malaise had spread through Café Society and quite acutely in her coterie, friends impatient to find their way to the lightness, their place in the sun. The Great Depression cast shadows on the city. The roar of the Twenties had quieted to a soulful cry of the blues.”
― Pamela Hamilton, Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale

“I have better manners than to ask such personal questions unless it’s going to print.”
― pamela hamilton, Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale

“Oh good, the Algonquin Twit isn’t here.”
― Pamela Hamilton, Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale