Black Water Lilies Quotes
"The clear water of the stream is tinted pink, in small threads, like the fleeting pastel shades of water in which a paintbrush is being rinsed."
"Except that the red does not come from the palette a painter has been cleaning in the river, but from the battered head of Jérôme Morval."
"I suspect it won’t be long before the corpse is found."
"I’m not really the right age to pretend I’m a water nymph, even in such a piffling stream."
"Today, the wheel has turned again and every year tens of thousands of tourists travel round the world just to linger here."
"The magical places he painted. Inviolable… Varnished and on show for all eternity."
"For most of the day, Monet’s meadow is, in fact, a giant parking lot."
"I have seen the landscape transform itself, year after year."
"The most invasive trees have been sawn off at the base and the banks have been cleared of weeds."
"The least the children of Giverny can do today is to take part in his foundation’s competition, don’t you think?"
"It’s a symbol of your fate, Fanette. You are painting the same scene as Theodore Robinson did, and I have to say I think your version is better."
"A life, you know, Fanette, is just two or three opportunities that you mustn’t allow to slip by."
"I think he belongs to pretty much everyone in the village, but I’ve adopted him. He likes me best!"
"Sometimes James really treats me like I’m a baby."
"That stupid fight between Monet and his neighbors was ages ago."
"But what if the person who lives in the mill really is a witch!"
"Vincent scares me when he appears like that out of nowhere."
"Monet said that wisdom was getting up and going to bed with the sun."
"There will always be women more beautiful than the one you live with somewhere."
"Each piece in this criminal chain of events has been cleverly arranged, and believe me, nothing’s going to put a stop to it."
"I would’ve liked to have been ten years old. Still at school with a pretty teacher telling me I was a genius."
"Nature has been extremely kind to you, it’s spoiled you, and don’t pretend you don’t understand. You’re as cute as a button, intelligent, and full of mischief."
"There are times when James just doesn’t get it."
"You know, James, for the Robinson Foundation I’d like to paint something other than the mill and the witch’s house."
"I’m sure you’re right, Fanette. You’re the artist, after all; you’re the one who knows."
"To kill that gift within you would be the worst of crimes!"
"Just living here, in the middle of the village, a hundred yards from Monet’s garden, even in a rotten house—what more could she have hoped for?"
"Three weeks of art school, Mom? Three weeks isn’t a long time. It’s nothing."
"My father was someone who was just passing through."
"You’ve taken a photograph, Sylvio, I hope. I love this kind of madness!"
"And then neither of you will be able to sleep."
"So, when you claim that Monet had an old man’s way of seeing things…"
"The crime of dreaming, I agree to its creation."
"It’s as if the sun has counted to twenty behind a poplar, giving the moon a head start…"
"He had no choice. Take that strange mill, for example, beside Monet’s gardens—the Chennevières. Every time I go to Giverny I think about it, because of that painting by Theodore Robinson, the famous Père Trognon."
"Do I seem like I’m joking, young man? Let me tell you, there are idiotic treasure seekers who travel the world in search of three pieces of gold. If they were just a little smarter, they would visit the attics of the houses in Giverny and the nearby villages."
"I know what people say. Claude Monet destroyed the paintings he wasn’t satisfied with, along with his early works. He was so worried that dealers would pounce on his unfinished canvases and sketches that he burned everything he didn’t like in his studio, in 1921."
"What can I tell you, Inspector? Foundations are complicated things. That kind of association is officially as altruistic and impartial as they come."
"A painting is worth a lot because the other paintings are worth much less, or nothing at all. If there is a level playing field, if there is true competition among critics, schools, and galleries, in the end everything is fine."
"But in spite of all the master’s precautions, it’s not impossible that there’s another Monet hidden somewhere. Just some old, forgotten painting. But enough to buy you an island in the Pacific!"
"Monet didn’t paint death? Monet didn’t paint corpses, only nature? Ah, look now, Inspector. Look!"
"Allow me to introduce you to Camille Monet," Guillotin says coldly. "His first wife. His prettiest model. The girl with the parasol amid the poppies, his radiant companion on Sundays in the country. Dead at the age of thirty-two."
"The Water Lilies in black. Like the dahlia."
"The photograph from the Républicain de Vernon is a perfect match for the little boy in the school photograph, sitting in the middle of the second row."
"THE ROSALBA FAMILY LEAVES GIVERNY: THEY HAVE NEVER BELIEVED IN THE THEORY OF AN ACCIDENT."
"According to Mme. Rosalba, 'Albert never played alone beside the stream. There must be witnesses. There must be people who know.'"
"Laurentin feels his heart speeding up dangerously. Rest, rest, his cardiologist keeps telling him… My God! Is it possible? That there’s still a witness?"
"The three police vans return down the Rue Blanche Hoschedé-Monet, sirens wailing."
"Stéphanie is unable to dismiss the image of her husband smiling at her that morning while they lay in bed, kissing her, then resting a hand on her shoulder. 'Have a good day, my love.'"
"I’m spying on the two women. Well, spying is a big word. I’m just sitting opposite them on the other side of the street, a few yards away from the Art Gallery Academy, and not too close to the school."
"Stéphanie Dupain raises her voice. 'Nonsense! Any lawyer…'"
"Fanette goes on painting for several more minutes. Paul stands in silence behind her as the light continues to fade."
"Stéphanie devours her apple and rhubarb sorbet. She needs strength. Lots of strength."
"Chief Inspector Laurentin’s pen glides over his notepad. 2010–1937 = 73."
"Laurentin studies the white room, trying to come up with an idea."
"In the issue dated June 12, 1937, mention is made of Albert Rosalba’s funeral at Sainte-Radegonde’s church in Giverny."
"For a moment he wonders what he is doing here. Has his life become so empty that he is willing to spend his days pursuing the first fantasy that comes along?"
"Stéphanie tries again to concentrate. She looks at her class, studies each of the faces in front of her, one by one."
"A moving conviction on the part of a distressed mother. We give the Rosalbas our very best wishes for rebuilding their lives far from these disturbing memories."
"The nurse sighs. No panic, no apparent anger. As if she’s used to the eccentricities of the pensioners who scour the archives and who, every now and again, God knows why, become hysterical."
"Laurentin thinks for a moment. There’s nothing he can add. The girl at the counter is organized."
"Louise Rosalba claims that what is driving her to leave the village most of all is the troubling silence of the residents."
"No one knows Stéphanie better than I do."
"The price of Stéphanie’s freedom. The price of their love."
"You wouldn’t understand. There are some things that are beyond you."
"She’s free. Do you understand that? You and I have nothing to talk about."
"I didn’t come here to make polite conversation, Sérénac."
"You’re a mediocrity, Dupain. Open your eyes! You don’t deserve Stéphanie."
"Inspector, is that how you managed to get to Stéphanie, with grotesque clichés like that?"
"You can’t even imagine, Sérénac, how attached I am to Stéphanie."
"I’m not going to let you take Fanette away from us."
"You really haven’t understood a single thing, Sérénac."
"It was quite natural, though, for such a treasure to be shared with the masses, for the overwhelming beauty of the place to be offered to any soul capable of grasping it."
"It rained in 1937, the day when my Paul, my Albert Rosalba, was buried. I was distraught."
"I peopled the cemetery with my memories. My memories of rain."
"I’ve had six dogs in my life. All German shepherds. I’ve called them all Neptune, out of fidelity to the whim of a lonely, unhappy little girl, who so wanted her dog to live forever, who never wanted him to die."
"Who could imagine that beneath that wrinkled skin there was once a little girl with talent. Perhaps even genius…"
"I don’t think she deserved to die feeling so bitter."
"His whole life was summarized in this auto-da-fé, to which he was the only witness."
"It’s actually quite an agreeable feeling, Grand-Duc thought, to sit in judgment on the life and death of another: to protect only in order to condemn, to give hope in order to sacrifice."
"It would be an exaggeration to say that I have no regrets, but I have done my best."
"The solution was so obvious: it jumped out at you… but on one condition."
"She was like a mother hen to some of her regulars and an advice columnist to others, helping them through their heartaches with professional skill."
"She knew that determination whenever the girl took out a book or a folder, in the way she would skim confidently over notes that Marc would take hours to master."
"But what about the rest? Mariam had often tried talking with Emilie and Marc, chatting about any old subject, but she had never learned anything intimate. But one day, she was determined she would find out their secret…"