Margaret Mitchell: Herring

“Child, it's a very bad thing for a woman to face the worst that can happen to her, because after she's faced the worst she can't ever really fear anything again…. Scarlett, always save something to fear— even as you save something to love…”

“Vanity was stronger than love at sixteen and there was no room in her hot heart now for anything but hate.”

“He had never known such gallantry as the gallantry of Scarlett O'Hara going forth to conquer the world in her mother's velvet curtains and the tail feathers of a rooster.”

“Her lips on his could tell him better than all her stumbling words.”

“She saw in his eyes defeat of her wild dreams, her mad desires.”

“Her burdens were her own and burdens were for shoulders strong enough to bear them.”

“Like most girls, her imagination carried her just as far as the altar and no further.”

“She could not ignore life. She had to live it and it was too brutal, too hostile, for her even to try to gloss over its harshness with a smile.”

“They were always like two people talking to each other in different languages. But she loved him so much, when he withdrew as he had now done, it was like the warm sun going down and leaving her in chilly twilight dews.”

“He made her play and she had almost forgotten how. Life had been so serious and so bitter. He knew how to play and swept her along with him.”

“Somehow the bright beauty had gone from April afternoon and from her heart as well and the sad sweetness of remembering was as bitter as gall.”

“To Scarlett, there was something breath-taking about Ellen O'Hara, a miracle that lived in the house with her and awed her and charmed and soothed her.”

“Yes, life was very sweet and cosy with Scarlett - as long as she had her own way”