Milena

“She had no will of her own now, no consecutive thought, no power of concentration; she was being dashed and hurtled into a chaos that blinded her, some bottomless pit, some sweet, appalling nothingness.
[...]
Papa who played her on a thousand strings, she dancing to his tune like a doll on wires - Papa who harped at her and would not let her be. He was cruel, he was relentless, he was like some oppressive, suffocating power that stifled her and could not be warded off; he gave her all these bewildering sounds and sensations without causing so that she was like a child stuffed with sweets cloying and rich; they were rammed down her throat and into her belly, filling her, exhausting her, making her a drum of excitement and anguish and emotion that was gripping in its savage intensity. It was too much for her, too strong.
She felt as though she were a dry stack in a deep wood, and he had put a match to her and was watching her burn.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“You know, I think she's terribly attractive, but when you dance with her she makes you feel she doesn't want you. It's as if she were tremendously alive and you were a piece of wood. And that's all wrong, because she obviously must hate pieces of wood - shes has such hot eyes.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“He saw the face that stared at him now, ugly, degenerate and old, and he knew that his life counted therefore as nothing, that no achievement lay behind him, no battle won, no beauty possessed; that Julius Lévy was a name already vanished and lost in the sky, that had never been, that would not go on; and he wondered if there was no continuation of life, not future, no treasure beyond the stars, and if in reality there was neither God nor man, nor any world at all.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius

“I have a new thing about living, it's not going to be the same any more. It's going to be more wonderful than anything has ever been. I'm so happy.'
[...]
'This will hurt you, of course, but - I can't help that, I can't think of anyone but myself when I'm happy. You said I was always to think of myself.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Julius