Nada Quotes
"Blood was beginning to circulate in my stiff legs after the long, tedious trip, and with an astonished smile I looked around at the huge Francia station and the groups forming of those who were waiting for the express and those of us who had arrived three hours late."
"A sea breeze, heavy and cool, entered my lungs along with my first confused impression of the city: a mass of sleeping houses, of closed establishments, of streetlights like drunken sentinels of solitude."
"Everything began to be unfamiliar in my imagination; the narrow, worn mosaic steps, lit by an electric light, found no place in my memory."
"In front of the door to the flat I was overcome by a sudden fear of waking those people, my relatives who were, after all, strangers to me, and I hesitated for a while before I gave the bell a timid ring that no one responded to."
"What a relief the icy water was on my body! What a relief to be away from the stares of those extraordinary beings!"
"I thought I’d had bad dreams, but now I was resting in this joy."
"I knew very well everything your cousin wrote to Angustias … In fact, I read the letter, without any right to, of course, just out of curiosity."
"I wanted to lean against a wall with my head on my arms, turn my back on everything, and close my eyes."
"That illuminated twinkling of the stars brought back in a rush all my hopes regarding Barcelona until the moment I’d entered this atmosphere of perverse people and furniture."
"‘I need to get washed,’ I said. ‘What? Talk louder! Get washed?’ Her eyes opened wide with astonishment."
"‘You’re very uncouth and very provincial, my child,’ Angustias would say with a certain satisfaction."
"I believe those were the times when I began to find pleasure in the smoke."
"The result was not long in coming. A fist banging on the table and a string of insults directed at Román that didn’t stop when the abrupt sound of the apartment door announced that Román had already left."
"I thought it would be terribly painful for me to bring Ena to meet Román – ‘a famous violinist’ – and witness the disillusionment and mockery in her eyes when she saw his negligent appearance."
"If you’re referring to the wife of Don Jerónimo, the head of my office, you know perfectly well that the poor thing has lost her mind and rather than send her to an asylum he preferred …"
"‘I gave it to somebody,’ I said, controlling the pounding of my heart. ‘I gave it to somebody as a present.’"
"‘I’m leaving this house very soon, dear,’ she said in a hesitant voice. ‘Much sooner than anybody imagines. Then my truth will shine.’"
"When she finally left, her echoes kept vibrating for some time."
"He was tall and stout and had very grey, heavy eyebrows."
"Granny appeared with the baby glued to her skirts, with her spectral, shabby dignity, smiling sweetly but not recognising him."
"‘Jesus! Dear Jesus!’ said Granny, trembling."
"‘You can do whatever you want, Andrea,’ he said at last, ‘it isn’t a matter of life or death for me.’"
"But you, Román, you’re going to hell too behind those people you dismiss …"
"‘Child,’ said my grandmother, shaking her head, ‘not everything we see is what it seems.’"
"All of you back to bed! Nobody has any business here!"
"‘I feel like going to the country and seeing the trees,’ said Ena."
"There’s only one person I love as much as I love you two. Maybe more than both of you together … or maybe not, Jaime, maybe I don’t love her as much as I love you … I don’t know."
"I saw myself in a mirror, white and grey, dowdy among the bright summer dresses all around me."
"‘Today this rock is inaccessible, but to reach it I’ll construct a cable car and my castle-house will have its foundations on the same peak.'"
"What’s impossible is your finding a woman who wants to live with you there! … Really, Gaspar …"
"I walked as if I were travelling over the deserted road of my own life."
"‘You realise I can’t live here? I can’t … He’ll kill me, and I don’t want to die. Life’s very sweet, kid.'"
"‘I have the best of you at home. I’ve stolen your beauty.'"
"What’s wrong with you today, Andrea, I don’t know why you’re not the way you always are …"
"I felt a wretched, useless sadness there by myself."
"Poor thing, you’re very bored … This son of mine is a boor! I’ll get him right away!"
"I saw her approach my friend and after a few minutes he was at my side."
"Forgive me, Andrea, please … Would you like to dance?"
"No, thanks. I’m not comfortable here and I’d like to leave."
"‘I can’t find the slightest pleasure in being with people "like that",’ I said, ‘like that girl, for example.’"
"‘You’re like an animal,’ I said, furious. ‘You and Juan are like beasts.'"
"‘Do you know how long you slept, Andrea?’ she said. ‘You slept two whole days.’"