Heather

“In the late afternoon the group assembled for cocktails. Without consorting about it they'd all dressed up, and the women's perfumes fought for supremacy in the living room. The sun set, candles were lit; Mme Reynard found an English dictionary among the cookbooks and proposed they play the game called Dictionary, whereby a player assigns an incorrect definition to an unknown word in hopes of fooling the other players.
She claimed the secateur was the sabateur's assistant. Malcom that costalgia was a shared reminiscence, Susan that a remotion was a lateral promotion, Frances that polonaise was an outmoded British condiment fabricated from a horse's bone marrow, Madeline that a puncheon was a contentious luncheon, and Joan that a syrt was a Syrian breath mint. Julius, whose English was not fully matured, said that unbearing was the act of "removing a bear from a peopled premises.”
― Patrick deWitt, French Exit

“The lilies i always associate with him; that are white. And stain you.”
― Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories

“He was aggregating memory like a wall against extinction and the little boxes of slides were his bricks.”
― Peter Heller, The Dog Stars

“Yes, my life is riddled by clichés, but do you know what a cliche is? It’s a story so fine and thrilling that it’s grown old in it’s hopeful retelling. People tell it. Not so many live it. – Frances”
― Patrick deWitt, French Exit