Quotes from book

Tender Is the Night

“She smiled, a moving childish smile that was like all the lost youth in the world.”

“Well, you never knew exactly how much space you occupied in people's lives.”

“Somewhere inside me there’ll always be the person I am to-night”

“You're the only girl I've seen for a long time that actually did look like something blooming.”

“Very well then, better a sane crook than a mad puritan.”

“When I see a beautiful shell like that I can't help feeling a regret about what's inside it.”

“He had possessed the arrogance of a tall member of a short race, with no obligation save to be tall.”

“She knew few words and believed in none.”

“Actually that’s my secret — I can’t even talk about you to anybody because I don’t want any more people to know how wonderful you are.”

“My God,' he gasped, 'you're fun to kiss.”

“Who would not be pleased at carrying lamps helpfully through the darkness?”

“But I suppose you must touch life in order to spring from it.”

“I am tired of knowing nothing and being reminded of it all the time.”

“If you're in love it ought to make you happy. You ought to laugh.”

“There are open wounds, shrunk sometimes to the size of a pin-prick but wounds still.”

“In any case you mustn't confuse a single failure with a final defeat.”

“I want to die violently instead of fading out sentimentally.”

“Her beauty climbed the rolling slope, it came into the room, rustling ghost-like through the curtains…”

“When she saw him face to face their eyes met and brushed like birds’ wings. After that everything was all right, everything was wonderful, she knew that he was beginning to fall in love with her.”