Djuna Barnes quotes

The heart of the jealous knows the best and most satisfying love, that of the other's bed, where the rival perfects the lover's imperfections. (Djuna Barnes)
We are beginning to wonder whether a servant girl hasn't the best of it after all. She knows how the salad tastes without the dressing, and she knows how life's lived before it gets to the parlor door. View quote
Djuna Barnes
Well, isn't Bohemia a place where everyone is as good as everyone else - and must not a waiter be a little less than a waiter to be a good Bohemian? View quote
Djuna Barnes
After all, it is not where one washes one's neck that counts but where one moistens one's throat. View quote
Djuna Barnes
Dreams have only the pigmentation of fact. View quote
Djuna Barnes
We are adhering to life now with our last muscle - the heart. View quote
Djuna Barnes
New York is the meeting place of the peoples, the only city where you can hardly find a typical American. View quote
Djuna Barnes
The night is a skin pulled over the head of day that the day may be in torment. View quote
Djuna Barnes
A strong sense of identity gives man an idea he can do no wrong; too little accomplishes the same. View quote
Djuna Barnes
The Seal, she lounges like a bride,Much too docile, there's no doubt;Madame Récamier, on side,(if such she has), and bottom out. View quote
Djuna Barnes
Life is not to be told, call it as loud as you like, it will not tell itself. (Djuna Barnes)
There is always more surface to a shattered object than a whole. View quote
Djuna Barnes
Of course I think of the past and of Paris, what else is there to remember? View quote
Djuna Barnes
Destiny and history are untidy. View quote
Djuna Barnes
I'm a fart in a gale of wind, a humble violet under a cow pat. View quote
Djuna Barnes
Suffering for love is how I have learned practically everything I know, love of grandmother up and on. View quote
Djuna Barnes
I am not a critic; to me criticism is so often nothing more than the eye garrulously denouncing the shape of the peephole that gives access to hidden treasure. View quote
Djuna Barnes
One's life is peculiar to one's own when one has invented it. View quote
Djuna Barnes
What is a ruin but time easing itself of endurance? Corruption is the Age of Time. View quote
Djuna Barnes
A man is whole only when he takes into account his shadow as well as himself - and what is a man's shadow but his upright astonishment? View quote
Djuna Barnes
Someday beneath some hard Capricious star - Spreading its light a little Over far, We'll know you for the woman That you are. (Djuna Barnes)
What turn of body, what of lust Undiced? So we've worshipped you a little More than Christ. View quote
Djuna Barnes
One sees you sitting in the sun Asleep; With the sweeter gifts you had And didn't keep, One grieves that the altars of Your vice lie deep. View quote
Djuna Barnes
The unendurable is the beginning of the curve of joy. View quote
Djuna Barnes
I talk too much because I have been made so miserable by what you are keeping hushed. View quote
Djuna Barnes