We are beginning to wonder whether a servant girl hasnt the best of it after all. She knows how the salad tastes without the dressing, and she knows how lifes lived before it gets to the parlor door. – Djuna Barnes
Sleep demands of us a guilty immunity. There is not one of us who, given an eternal incognito, a thumbprint nowhere set against our souls, would not commit rape, murder and all abominations. – Djuna Barnes
The heart of the jealous knows the best and most satisfying love, that of the others bed, where the rival perfects the lovers imperfections. – Djuna Barnes
The night is a skin pulled over the head of day that the day may be in torment. – Djuna Barnes
I hope you have lost your good looks, for while they last any fool can adore you, and the adoration of fools is bad for the soul. No, give me a ruined complexion and a lost figure and sixteen chins on a farmyard of Crow’s feet and an obvious wig. Then you shall see me coming out strong. – George Bernard Shaw, to Mrs. Patrick Campbell