The Other Quotes
"Death, taxes, and that damn stain. I guess if it were up to Miss DeGroot they’d probably do something about it."
"Odd, how I recall that, isn’t it? You never saw it, probably, but—well, confidentially, this one in this room reminds me of that one in that room."
"Lying here, I can see how the light is fading slightly, already deepening, a trembling, opalescent light."
"I used to watch for the streetcars; I recall that little song that always made me think of them."
"What’s one more water mark on the ceiling to them—for the likes of me."
"I am reminded of—never mind; you will think I’m crazy."
"The barn was venerable, swaybacked, lichen-spotted, musty, sitting on a small rise beside the icehouse road."
"The earth lay fallow, the farm moribund, while each working day Vining left his family."
"I’ve told Miss DeGroot all kinds of stories about the apple cellar. She says it’s a spooky place; she’s right."
"It was an ancient house, two hundred years or more old, built on a sweeping breadth of land."
"Ada would have followed the sun all day long if she could, skirts caught up above her knees, running barefoot through the sunflower paths."
"I guess some day the whole ceiling will be one big brown stain, if I live long enough."
"You had to feel sorry, all she could do was cry and blame herself for having let Russell play where it was unsafe."
"Niles looked at his grandmother. She was sitting in her black dress, the gold moon pin on her breast, hands folded quietly in her lap."
"Aunt Vee always selected her words as she might fruit, squeezing each for ripeness and juiciness."
"It was like looking at the photographs in an album: the corners tidily stuck down, the images preserved and captioned."
"Father, A Man Much Admired. He can do everything—well, practically."
"Silvery giants leaping on the screen. Niles goes for a drink; returning he becomes lost; cries."
"Holland’s expression, dreamy and far away, that same moonstruck look, his eyes obscured by a filmy glaze."
"He pressed her hand and bent to lay a cheek against hers and exchange kisses."
"She fidgeted with her robe, started to get up, then, changing her mind, leaned back as though the effort were too much."
"It is from sleep that God gives us our strength and our power and our peace, do you see."
"The shocked gloomy aftermath of death pressed a heavy hand upon the house."
"Holland put on a prissy face and, miming an aged person with a cane, recited, 'Who touches a hair of yon gray head dies like a dog—march on, he said.'"
"The grandfather clock at the head of the stairs was a perverse timepiece: tock-tick, it insisted upon, tock-tick."
"The world is a place of strange and surprising spaces."
"It’s a Russian one, Ada said, and being Russian, why shouldn’t she have her Tchaikovsky pure?"
"Ada’s smile widened. 'Her' was the figure in one of the stained glass windows."
"Their ways are winning indeed, but who is unwilling to be won by such charm?"
"Their hatreds seem scarcely less ingrained than those to be found in the more mature personality."
"Do not believe it. Why does Niles watch Holland off to ride the streetcars?"
"And if Holland did burn down a shack, who was hurt? Not much harm was done."
"Rose Halligan ogled the cars on the Ferris wheel. Star-pricked with lights, the contraption turned fitfully."
"The music increased in volume and in the dim light the audience waited, hushed and expectant."
"The crowd, thrilled by the grisly horror, rubbernecked for a while."
"The baby bobbed to and fro, rising and falling; rising again, head back, pale puckered lips breaking the surface as though gasping for breath."
"The half-parted robe revealed one hand closing and opening rhythmically upon a quasi-developed breast."
"In the dark he?—she? lit a cigarette, the flame illuminating for an instant the black eyes."
"In the rickety oilcloth-covered table. On it sat a large glass laboratory jar, filled with a clear, viscous-looking liquid."
"The crowd swept along close to the entrance, stopping before a rickety oilcloth-covered table."
"They were on the bed. In the light. He was on top of her—right on top. Moving."
"Your mind is wandering. Look there, look there."
"Now do you understand what it is you can feel?"
"It's going to be a lovely baby. A beautiful baby."
"And the baby would be beautiful, a girl, as he predicted."
"Sweetheart, you look just like Air. Coffee Nerves in the Postum ads."
"Though the air was still warm, he felt chilled."
"Caught a slight movement, just there, under the trees."
"A slight movement: she was holding the tin in her other hand."
"She drew in a sharp, short breath, as if a deeper one would cause her some injury inside."
"How? How can it be yours? She was impatient to understand."
"Unwillingly he spoke. 'Holland gave it to me.'"
"The words seemed to strike her in the face, each a separate blow."
"Her hand grasped her throat as if its manipulation would allow her to speak without choking."
"Then horror swept across her face, of the sort that closes and seals off all the corridors of the mind."
"Everyone should have a secret. But sometimes it is not right to keep secrets."
"You have a secret. Tell it to me. Tell it to Ada."
"Does the secret have anything to do with the baby?"
"Do you want Torrie to go on suffering the way she is?"
"It was only a game. A game for us to play, you and me."
"Things cannot ever be the same again. Not for any of us."
"It's a terrible place, as I said, and I do not care to have to do with the others who are here also."