Susan Hubbard > Quotes

“He said that academia reminded him of a badly run circus. The faculty members were like underfed animals -- weary of their cages, which were never large enough to begin with -- and they responded sluggishly to the whip. The trapeze artists fell with monotonous regularity into poorly strung nets. The clowns looked hungry. The tent leaked. The crowd was inattentive, shouting incoherently at inappropriate moments. And when the show was over, no one cheered.”
― Susan Hubbard

“After we became a couple, she composed our time together. She planned days as if they were artistic events. One afternoon we went to Tybee Island for a picnic; we ate blueberries and drank champagne tinted with curacao and listened to Miles Davis, and when I asked the name of her perfume, she said it was L'Heure Bleue.

She talked about 'perfect moments.' One such moment happened that afternoon; she'd been napping; I lay next to her, reading. She said, 'I'll always remember the sounds of the sea and of pages turning, and the smell of L'Heure Bleue. For me they signify love.”
― Susan Hubbard, The Society of S

“My father was right: people are always leaving. They fall in and out of your life like shadows.”
― Susan Hubbard, The Society of S

“What's life without risk," my father said. "Nothing but mauvais foi [bad faith]”
― Susan Hubbard, The Society of S

“In practicing the art of confusion, there is no better weapon than poetry.”
― Susan Hubbard, The Society of S

“She especially liked my bedside lamp, which had a five-sided porcelain shade. Unlit, the shade seemed like bumpy ivory. Lit, each panel came to life with the image of a bird: a blue jay, a cardinal, wrens, an oriole, and a dove. Kathleen turned it off and on again, several times. "How does it do that?"

"The panels are called lithophanes." I knew because I'd asked my father about the lamp, years ago. "The porcelain is carved and painted. You can see it if you look inside the shade."

"No," she said. "It's magic. I don't want to know how it's done.”
― Susan Hubbard, The Society of S

“I felt as if the world I lived in was only a facade - that beneath its skin, a darker world raged and rampaged. I'd glimpsed that world before, but I'd never known how vast and malignant it might be.”
― Susan Hubbard, The Year of Disappearances

“Even a dull life could make worthwhile reading, he said, provided the writer paid sufficient attention to detail.”
― Susan Hubbard, The Society of S

“She looked at me for a second and said, "Oh, never mind. I guess it's true what Mom said? That you've led a sheltered life?"

I said I thought the description fairly apt.”
― Susan Hubbard, The Society of S

“Who chose burial monuments? Were the wishes of the deceased taken into consideration? It was a subject I'd never considered before.”
― Susan Hubbard, The Society of S

“What about stakes in the heart?" I asked now.

He frowned, the center of his mouth pursed while its corners curled downward. "Anyone will die from a stake in the heart," he said. "And anyone will die if they're severely burned, including vampires.”
― Susan Hubbard, The Society of S

“Would you agree," he said, "that man's sole duty is to produce as much pleasure as possible?"

"Only if the pleasure produced is equivalent to the diminution of pain." My father crossed his arms. "And only if one man's pleasure is as important as any other's.”
― Susan Hubbard, The Society of S

“Dia membayangkan dirinya dipintal oleh 'Sang Waktu, Pemintal paling hebat dan paling lama dari semuanya', tapi mengakui bahwa,'tempat pemintalannya adalah tempat rahasia, pekerjaannya tak bersuara dan Tangan-Tangan Sang Waktu diredam.”
― Susan Hubbard