Love in a Fallen City Quotes

“She wasn’t a bird in a cage. A bird in a cage, when the cage is opened, can still fly away. She was a bird embroidered onto a screen — a white bird in clouds of gold stitched onto a screen of melancholy satin. The years passed; the bird’s feathers darkened, mildewed, and were eaten by moths, but the bird stayed on the screen even in death.”
― Eileen Chang, Love in a Fallen City

“Thinking is painful business.”
― Eileen Chang, Love in a Fallen City

“If you knew the old me, maybe you could forgive the current me.”
― Eileen Chang, Love in a Fallen City

“Maybe every man has two such women—at least two. Marry a red rose and eventually she'll be a mosquito-blood streak smeared on the wall, while the white one is "moonlight in front of my bed." Marry a white rose, and before long she'll be a grain of sticky rice that's gotten stuck to your clothes; the red one, by then, is a scarlet beauty mark just over your heart.”
― Eileen Chang, Love in a Fallen City

“Life was like the Bible, translated from Hebrew to Greek, from Greek to Latin, from Latin to English, from English to Mandarin Chinese.”
― Eileen Chang, Love in a Fallen City

“The moon of thirty years ago has gone down long since and the people of thirty years ago are dead but the story of thirty years ago is not yet ended—can have no ending.”
― Eileen Chang, Love in a Fallen City

“She felt a numb chill creeping up the back of her head; the display windows downstairs and the glass door between them seemed to be broadening out, growing taller, as if behind her were an enormous, two-story-high expanse of brilliant, fragile glass, ready to disintegrate at any moment. But even as she felt almost dizzy with the precariousness of her situation, the shop seemed to be blanketing her in torpor. Inside she could hear only the muffled buzz of the city outside— because of the war, there were far fewer cars on the road than usual; the sounding of a horn was a rarity. The warm, sweet air inside the office pressed soporifically down on her like a quilt. Though she was vaguely aware that something was about to happen, her heavy head was telling her that it must all be a dream.”
― Eileen Chang, Love in a Fallen City

“The dim lamp, lit halfway, felt like a train car traveling from one strange place to another. On the train you meet a woman quite by accident, a woman who could be a friend.”
― Eileen Chang, Love in a Fallen City

“他現在知道精神與物質的界限不能分得這麼清。言語究竟沒有用。久久的握著手，就是較妥帖的安慰，因為會說話的人很少，真正有話說的人還要少。”
― Eileen Chang, Love in a Fallen City

“谁不憎厌他们自己待亏了的人？”
― Eileen Chang, 倾城之恋