Barbara Wersba > Quotes

“To put it bluntly, how could she not have known that rats are more magnificent?”
― Barbara Wersba, Walter: The Story of a Rat

“Suddenly, Walter was aware of all the things he did not know. There were hundreds--thousands--of books in the world, and he had read only a handful of them. One day he would die, a myriad of books unread, his knowledge of the world incomplete.”
― Barbara Wersba, Walter: The Story of a Rat

“Then there was the matter of her clothes, for which five closets had been built in the apartment. Her Manhattan clothes were bought at Bergdorf Goodman, and her Southampton clothes came from Abercrombie & Fitch. Her Europe clothes were purchased at Saks Fifth Avenue, while her shoes and bags came from Lord & Taylor. I forget where her nightgowns and slips descended from, but I have the odd impression that they were made by a cloistered order of nuns. In Belgium.”
― Barbara Wersba, Tunes for a Small Harmonica

“You're going to die, I told myself. You're going to die of love.
No, you're not, said another -- smaller -- voice. You're going to go on playing the harmonica.”
― Barbara Wersba, Tunes for a Small Harmonica

“Then what’s the point of art?”
You stopped walking and leaned against a tree. “I have no idea. Except that it’s a legal way of working out one’s madness.”
― Barbara Wersba, The Country of the Heart

“When I was nine years old they gave me an aptitude test in school and the results were that, while I was incredibly poor at words, numbers, logic and spelling, I did have the mechanical abilities of a man of forty.”
― Barbara Wersba, Tunes for a Small Harmonica

“The more beautiful a person's soul, the more he had to suffer in this world. And it was wrong, wrong, wrong.”
― Barbara Wersba, Tunes for a Small Harmonica

“Free-associate," said Dr. Waingloss, forgetting all about the Collective Unconscious. "What comes to your mind when I say the words sex, love, devotion, marriage?"
"Elephants," I said.
Dr. Waingloss looked startled. "Elephants?"
"Well, yes. In the sense that they're supposed to be very shy about lovemaking and I always thought that was nice. What I mean is, they have a very great sense of privacy. In the jungle and everything.”
― Barbara Wersba, Tunes for a Small Harmonica

“Suddenly I decided that if anyone asked me what I was going to major in at Vassar, I would reply, "Sex Therapy." That would shut them up.”
― Barbara Wersba, Tunes for a Small Harmonica

“Why do you want to be a poet?” You asked.
“I … I don’t know,” I said. “I just do.”
“How old are you?”
“Eighteen.”
“I see. Well, you’ll get over it.”
― Barbara Wersba, The Country of the Heart

“Dear Miss Pomeroy, I am saddened by the things I do not know. There are hundreds--thousands--of books in the world and I will never be able to read all of them.
I am old.
Walter”
― Barbara Wersba, Walter: The Story of a Rat