Heather Webb > Quotes

“Love did not conquer all; it only made life more bearable for a short time before it consumed its victims.”
― Heather Webb, Rodin's Lover

“The inevitable slip of time weighted on a man's soul.”
― Heather Webb, Rodin's Lover

“some had an easier way than others, through no inherent superiority but simply by the luck of being born at the right place in the right time—or with the right nationality and ethnicity.”
― Heather Webb, The Next Ship Home

“But as I sat across from this man who had more passion than anyone I’d ever known, the air as electric as in a summer storm, I knew I’d surrender. Francis would be trouble, and trouble with him seemed like just the right kind.”
― Heather Webb, Strangers in the Night

“Hortense. We broke”
― Heather Webb, Becoming Josephine: A Novel

“She was beautiful, all charm and bright light, and as I looked down at her, her eyes sparking with mischief, I knew I was a goner. Ava Gardner might very well be my undoing.”
― Heather Webb, Strangers in the Night

“I began to think that maybe we really were like Romeo and Juliet after all. Star-crossed lovers, forever in love but ultimately a tragedy. There was something poetic about our desperate need for each other.”
― Heather Webb, Strangers in the Night

“Now it was my turn to transcend a role, one that had been as raucous and meaningful as it had been disappointing and, at times, utterly heartbreaking. Wasn’t that the way of things? To play and to suffer and to find a way to hold your truth in your hands, and to live it the best way you could? Francis would say it was, and so would I.”
― Heather Webb, Strangers in the Night

“I burst into tears. I cried in relief. I cried for the injustice of being held to an impossible standard in my profession. I cried for the simple fact that my youth was fleeting, and that beauty did not endure. I cried for the yawning fear that gripped me when I considered the future.”
― Heather Webb, Strangers in the Night

“Sighing, she joined the cafeteria line and”
― Heather Webb, The Next Ship Home

“She hadn't had any schooling since she was a young girl, and learning again felt like a kind of freedom.”
― Heather Webb, The Next Ship Home

“They laughed heartily and shouted over one another, the Sicilian dialect she hadn't heard in a while enveloping her. To the untrained eye, the group might have been arguing, but Francesca knew better. Why say something calmly when one could make their point much better with a little display of emotion?”
― Heather Webb, The Next Ship Home

“Jewish bakeries, Italian coffeehouses, and German delicatessens nestled against each other in a colorful parade of nationalities.”
― Heather Webb, The Next Ship Home

“And yet, this was our way—to love and fight and struggle desperately against our insecurities and our own brand of darkness. It was a mad, addicting cycle, but I was wrung out. Tired of jeopardizing my career for him, tired of the bickering over nothing, of the jealousy, and the way he expected me to follow him no matter what. I was tired of it all, and one day soon, I would have to decide if I wanted Frank in my life at all.”
― Heather Webb, Strangers in the Night

“hated being followed around by photogs; they didn’t respect a man’s privacy and they took a special kind of satisfaction in smearing me in the papers. I took a special satisfaction in introducing them to my fist.”
― Heather Webb, Strangers in the Night

“God knew what they had been through before they had decided to sail for America. Here, at Ellis Island, all of their fright, courage, and - most of all- hope, funneled into this one moment: passing through the registry office to the stairwell, the exit to their freedom, and to possibilities of which they could only dream before now.”
― Heather Webb, The Next Ship Home

“I hated myself a little for it, for that need to please an audience and that yearning for sensation—pleasures, adventure, danger—at any cost.”
― Heather Webb, Strangers in the Night

“I've always found language fascinating. Since I was a child, I've seen it as a sort of code that unlocks secrets.”
― Heather Webb, The Next Ship Home

“When you know a person's language, you come to find out who they are.”
― Heather Webb, The Next Ship Home

“We really were star-crossed lovers, wretched for each other and completely incapable of being together. Tears slipped down my face as the truth I had known long ago settled into my bones. It was finally over, really over, after all these years. We were destined to live apart, and I wasn’t even a wistful romantic type, but my Francis had always done that to me.”
― Heather Webb, Strangers in the Night

“I would never give myself over to someone so completely again. I couldn’t stand that kind of heartache again, not ever. It would kill me. Ava had shattered something in me that could never be fixed, and I had to accept that now—and move on.”
― Heather Webb, Strangers in the Night

“She laughed heartily this time. “Better not put me on a pedestal. I like to run around barefoot and get dirty.”
― Heather Webb, Strangers in the Night

“The island had been infamous for centuries; a place to hang pirates and criminals, or runaway slaves. Perhaps spirits haunted the island still.”
― Heather Webb, The Next Ship Home

“I could forgive a lot when I listened to him sing.”
― Heather Webb, Strangers in the Night

“No matter what—no matter time, distance, or aggravation—he would forever be mine.”
― Heather Webb, Strangers in the Night

“Day after day they came, an endless stream like a faucet left on by accident.”
― Heather Webb, The Next Ship Home

“It was something of a problem, I supposed, to always look forward to an escape from my husband, but I wasn’t ready to do something about it.”
― Heather Webb, Strangers in the Night

“A wave of tenderness washed over me then and I knew she was right. I had it bad—worse than bad. I was in love.”
― Heather Webb, Strangers in the Night

“It was hard to live with Francis, but it seemed harder to live without him.”
― Heather Webb, Strangers in the Night