Kathleen Tessaro > Quotes

“If you can capture a woman's imagination, then you will have her. But imagination is a strange creature. It needs time and distance to function properly.”
― Kathleen Tessaro

“My husband claims I have an unhealthy obsession with secondhand bookshops. That I spend too much time daydreaming altogether. But either you intrinsically understand the attraction of searching for hidden treasure amongst rows of dusty shelves or you don't; it's a passion, bordering on a spiritual illness, which cannot be explained to the unaffected.

True, they're not for the faint of heart. Wild and chaotic, capricious and frustrating, there are certain physical laws that govern secondhand bookstores and like gravity, they're pretty much nonnegotiable. Paperback editions of D. H. Lawrence must constitute no less than 55 percent of all stock in any shop. Natural law also dictates that the remaining 45 percent consist of at least two shelves worth of literary criticism on Paradise Lost and there should always be an entire room in the basement devoted to military history which, by sheer coincidence, will be haunted by a man in his seventies. (Personal studies prove it's the same man. No matter how quickly you move from one bookshop to the next, he's always there. He's forgotten something about the war that no book can contain, but like a figure in Greek mythology, is doomed to spend his days wandering from basement room to basement room, searching through memoirs of the best/worst days of his life.)

Modern booksellers can't really compare with these eccentric charms. They keep regular hours, have central heating, and are staffed by freshly scrubbed young people in black T-shirts. They're devoid of both basement rooms and fallen Greek heroes in smelly tweeds. You'll find no dogs or cats curled up next to ancient space heathers like familiars nor the intoxicating smell of mold and mildew that could emanate equally from the unevenly stacked volumes or from the owner himself. People visit Waterstone's and leave. But secondhand bookshops have pilgrims. The words out of print are a call to arms for those who seek a Holy Grail made of paper and ink.”
― Kathleen Tessaro, Elegance

“There is nothing more difficult than simplicity, and therefore, nothing more refined.”
― Kathleen Tessaro, The Perfume Collector

“Most people assume that a muse is a creature of perfect beauty, poise and grace. Like the creatures from Greek mythology. They're wrong. In fact, there should be a marked absence of perfection in a muse--a gaping hole between what she is and what she might be. The ideal muse is a woman whose rough edges and contradictions drive you to fill in the blanks of her character. She is the irritant to your creativity. A remarkable possibility, waiting to be formed.”
― Kathleen Tessaro, The Perfume Collector

“To me, chance isn't random. The universe is bound by unseen threads. We have only to untangle them a little to see the pattern unfold.”
― Kathleen Tessaro, The Perfume Collector

“Smells are custodians of memories.”
― Kathleen Tessaro, The Perfume Collector

“Perfume should tell a story – the story of who you are, who you might be, perhaps even of who you fear becoming . . . all of these things are possible. It’s a very intimate element of a woman, just like her signature or the sound of her voice. And it conveys feelings and states of being that have no name, no language. Its very ambiguity makes it truer than words because, unlike words, it can’t be manipulated or misunderstood.”
― Kathleen Tessaro, The Perfume Collector

“I want to go to a café and sit with you. I want you to order something I've never eaten before and tease me about it. And I want to walk, anywhere, nowhere in particular, and for us to disagree.”
― Kathleen Tessaro, The Perfume Collector

“When you are older and have swum out into the stream of life, you'll see -- there are no "good" people, little girl. We're all trying and failing, trying too hard and failing too often. Remember that. We shouldn't judge too harshly, in the end, the sins of others"...”
― Kathleen Tessaro, The Perfume Collector

“There are no great fanfares for the truly great moments of your life. Just dripping taps and the sound of your own footsteps, walking from one room into another”
― Kathleen Tessaro

“I'm going to tell you something that no magazine or novel or television show will ever let on. Love wears you down. We think of it as hearts and flowers and happily ever after but in real life, the things you have to do in the name of love kill you... You end up doing a thousand things in a day in the name of love that you wouldn't ask a dog to do.

Sex is the most powerful weapon in your arsenal

innocence is attractive in children, but it makes brittle, disappointed adults.

Someone liking you is just the beginning; it always starts nicely but before you know it it's like Persephone being dragged into the Underworld.

Romantic love is an illusion Hughie,. It can be manupulated, twisted, piled up like a bunch of fun-house mirrors. The very nature of it is deceptive. It promises closeness but the only thing is ever really reveals is the dreams and fears of the person with the obsessions. That's why it's so easy to control”
― Kathleen Tessaro, The Flirt

“A woman who no longer cares about how she looks has given up on more than fashion – she’s given up on life.”
― Kathleen Tessaro, The Perfume Collector

“My husband claims I have an unhealthy obsession with secondhand bookshops. That I spend too much time daydreaming altogether. But either you intrinsically understand the attraction of searching for hidden treasure amongst rows of dusty shelves or you don't; it's a passion, bordering on a spiritual illness, which cannot be explained to the unaffected.”
― Kathleen Tessaro, Elegance

“If you cannot fit into the mould, then you must step out of it,”
― Kathleen Tessaro, The Perfume Collector

“Some of us, no matter how hard we try, aren’t meant to lead ordinary lives. Fate finds us. Gives us a shove.”
― Kathleen Tessaro, The Perfume Collector

“Perfume should tell a story – the story of who you are, who you might be, perhaps even of who you fear becoming…”
― Kathleen Tessaro, The Perfume Collector

“Likewise, while the men and women were no more naturally attractive than their English counterparts, they dressed with an assurance and attention to detail that would have been considered the height of arrogance in England. Here, maintaining a certain chic was apparently nothing less than a civic duty.”
― Kathleen Tessaro, The Perfume Collector

“You see, nothing is more immediate, more complete than the sense of smell. In an instant, it has the power to transport you. Your olfactory sense connects not to the memory itself, but to the emotion you felt when that memory was made. To recreate a scent memory is one of the most challenging, eloquent pursuits possible. It’s poetry, in its most immediate form.”
― Kathleen Tessaro, The Perfume Collector

“Are we at war with fate?”
― Kathleen Tessaro, The Perfume Collector

“In every book she’d ever read, the heroine was subject to self-doubt and unjust criticism. And in every case, it only served to harden their resolve.”
― Kathleen Tessaro, The Perfume Collector

“[...] I look in the mirror every day, when I brush my teeth or wash my face or comb my hair. It's just I tend to look at myself in pieces and avoid joining them up all together. I don't know why; it just feels safer that way.

But tonight I force myself to look at the whole thing. And suddenly I see how the bits and pieces add up to someone I'm not familiar with, someone I never intended to be.”
― Kathleen Tessaro, Elegance

“Seduction is nothing more than knowing that you want someone and then showing them, very gradually, very deliberately, that you do. It’s the way you do it – reveal, tease, ignore, take it back – that makes it seduction.”
― Kathleen Tessaro, The Perfume Collector

“The world is defined by smells – not words or shapes or sounds. This is the language that makes sense, that everyone understands.”
― Kathleen Tessaro, The Perfume Collector

“Life is, after all, a sensual experience. Our senses have the power to truly transport us but also to ground us. Make us human.”
― Kathleen Tessaro, The Perfume Collector

“...certain smells were the custodians of memory. And once they were unleashed, their effect was instantaneous, like switching on a light – flooding the senses far too quickly and completely. They had the power to transport and overwhelm. For that reason, one needed to be wary of them.”
― Kathleen Tessaro, The Perfume Collector

“The world was full of collectors, scouring the earth for pieces of themselves.”
― Kathleen Tessaro, Rare Objects

“Because happiness isn’t made of fun. It’s made of solid, real things. It’s made of paychecks and clean clothing, and hot food and healthy children, and a man who can look you in the eye when he comes home because he has nothing to hide. It’s not so rare. In fact, it’s so common people don’t notice it. They look for roses when they should be looking for indoor plumbing.” Ma,”
― Kathleen Tessaro, Rare Objects

“She tore off a piece of baguette; it was both crusty and soft, still warm in the centre. It was amazing how something so simple, so basic could be this delicious.”
― Kathleen Tessaro, The Perfume Collector

“We live in a disposable world. There's no point in investing yourself too heavily.


Love doesn't fix anything...it destroys more than it fixes. and when the dust has settled, it's just an afterthought. Lives still get ruined, people still leave, and life goes on and on and on.

the first forty-eight hours are the worst. the ego's taken a bit of a kicking. what you need is a constant supply of alcohol.

today was a day for taking tranquilizers washed down by vodka.”
― Kathleen Tessaro, The Flirt

“She’d always heard that Paris was elegant but had struggled to imagine how. She’d assumed it would be rigid; the demanding intolerance of perfection. But, being here, she was struck by the easy naturalness of everything. From the tall, slender trees, their leaves rustling high above her, to the chalky gravel that crunched beneath her feet or the classically proportioned buildings that rose, uniformly constructed from the same blonde stone, it was all orchestrated to hold the light. The entire city was enveloped in a halo of glowing softness.”
― Kathleen Tessaro, The Perfume Collector