“She had never acquired in-between shades of character, had not had the opportunity. She had been utterly selfish, and was now selfless, because she had never become a whole person, did not like herself, or know herself. Nor had she ever gained sufficient wisdom to be properly horrified at what she meant to do. She couldn’t think that intensely.”

—  Tanith Lee, book The Castle of Dark

Source: The Castle of Dark (1978), Chapter 17 “Lilune: The Lion” (p. 161)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "She had never acquired in-between shades of character, had not had the opportunity. She had been utterly selfish, and w…" by Tanith Lee?
Tanith Lee photo
Tanith Lee124
British writer 1947–2015

Related quotes

Bernard Cornwell photo

“She had been restless and forceful, a killer of the border hills, yet she had a childlike faith in love. She had given herself to him and never doubted the wisdom of the gift as he had sometimes doubted it. She had kept the faith, and she was dead.”

Bernard Cornwell (1944) British writer

Major Richard Sharpe (describing his murdered wife, Teresa Moreno) p. 339
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Enemy (1984)

David Nicholls photo

“And it was at moments like this that she had to remind herself that she was in love with him, or had once been in love with him, a long time ago.”

David Nicholls book One Day

Source: One Day

Madonna photo

“She never had public favor; it was a bit like the Hillary Clinton thing. She did all the right things for her country, but she wasn't ultimately revered. So she had a conversation with her confidant-adviser. She asked him, when have they ever looked up to or idolized a woman? Only one, he told her, the Virgin Mary. So she said, Then I will become like the Virgin Mary, and she did. She created a facade for herself; she stopped having lovers; she became like a virgin. She became sexless, and painted her face in a white alabaster way, and turned herself into an icon that was untouchable and sexless, and then she had everybody's respect.”

Madonna (1958) American singer, songwriter, and actress

Madonna Interview : Aperture Magazine (Summer 1999), Aperture http://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-library/madonna-interview-aperture-magazine-summer-1999, <br class="br">About Queen of England, Elizabeth I.

Paulo Coelho photo

“Now that she realized she had been waiting for him — she did not like that.”

Paulo Coelho book Eleven Minutes

Source: Eleven Minutes

Leo Tolstoy photo

“All that day she had had the feeling that she was playing in the theatre with actors better than herself and that her poor playing spoiled the whole thing.”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

Anthony Trollope photo

“She had married a vulgar man; and, though she had not become like the man, she had become vulgar.”

Anthony Trollope book The Prime Minister

Source: The Prime Minister (1876), Ch. 5

Khaled Hosseini photo

“As far as I know, he never asked where she had been or why she had left and she never told. I guess some stories do not need telling.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Source: The Kite Runner

Virginia Woolf photo

“What she loved was this, here, now, in front of her; the fat lady in the cab. Did it matter then, she asked herself, walking towards Bond Street, did it matter that she must inevitably cease completely; all this must go on without her; did she resent it; or did it not become consoling to believe that death ended absolutely? but that somehow in the streets of London, on the ebb and flow of things, here there, she survived. Peter survived, lived in each other, she being part, she was positive, of the trees at home; of the house there, ugly, rambling all to bits and pieces as it was; part of people she had never met; being laid out like a mist between the people she knew best, who lifted her on their branches as she had seen the trees lift the mist, but it spread ever so far, her life, herself.”

Virginia Woolf book Mrs Dalloway

Mrs Dalloway (1925)

Rick Riordan photo

“She often had to remind herself that she couldn't do everything alone. She wasn't always the best person for the job. Sometimes she got tunnel vision and forgot about what other people needed.”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

Octavia E. Butler photo

“Lilith might be strong enough now to handle troublemakers herself, but she did not want to do that unless she had to. It would not help the people become a community, and if they could not unite, nothing else they did would matter.”

Octavia E. Butler book Dawn

Part III “Nursery” chapter 1 (p. 126)
Dawn (1987)

Related topics