“What an odd thing a diary is: the things you omit are more important than those you put in.”
― The Woman Destroyed
― The Woman Destroyed
“There is not a single line in this diary that does not call for a correction or a denial...Yes: throughout these pages I meant what I was writing and I meant the opposite; reading them again I feel completely lost...I was lying to myself. How I lied to myself!”
― The Woman Destroyed
― The Woman Destroyed
“Tragedies are all right for a while: you are concerned, you are curious, you feel good. And then it gets repetitive, it doesn't advance, it grows dreadfully boring: it is so very boring, even for me.”
― The Woman Destroyed
― The Woman Destroyed
“There was once a man who lost his shadow. I forget what happened to him, but it was dreadful. As for me, I've lost my own image. I did not look at it often; but it was there, in the background, just as Maurice had drawn it for me. A straightforward, genuine, "authentic" woman, with out mean-mindedness, uncompromising, but at the same time understanding, indulgent, sensitive, deeply feeling, intensely aware of things and of people, passionately devoted to those she loved and creating happiness for them. A fine life, serene, full, "harmonious." It is dark: I cannot see myself anymore. And what do the others see? Maybe something hideous.”
― The Woman Destroyed
― The Woman Destroyed
“Beauty was not everything. Beauty had this penalty — it came too readily, came too completely. It stilled life — froze it.”
― To the Lighthouse
― To the Lighthouse
Carmela’s 2025 Year in Books
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