“She had never had a friend like this, in her private room, combing her hair, listening to her, talking about silly nonsense and the uselessness of one’s parents; how the future was perfect, because they hadn’t lived it yet.”
— Jessie Burton
“Then where is home, Johannes?” He looks at the maps on his wall. “I don’t know,” He says. “Where comfort is. And that is hard to find.”
— Jessie Burton
“1887A lifetime isn’t enough to know how a person will behave.”
— Jessie Burton
“A lifetime isn’t enough to know how a person will behave.”
— Jessie Burton
“In suffering we find our truest selves.”
— Jessie Burton
“Marin believes love is better in the chase than caught,’ she says. He raises his eyebrows. ‘That does not surprise me. It is not better. But it is easier. One’s imagination is always more generous. And yet, the chase always tires you out in the end.”
— Jessie Burton
“Nothing here is more fabulous than the truth”
— Jessie Burton
“When you have truly come to know a person, Nella — when you see beneath the sweet gestures, the smiles — when you see the rage and the pitiful fear which each of us hide — then forgiveness is everything.”
— Jessie Burton
“A Depressive?’ ‘Smiles in ballrooms, weeps in bedrooms. Ill in her head.’ Olive tapped her temple. ‘And here.’ She touched her heart.”
— Jessie Burton
“But words are water in Amsterdam, they flood your ears and set the rot, and the church’s east corner is crowded.”
— Jessie Burton
“I felt nothing change in the room, except the shock of my voice alone and the peculiar euphoria one feels in the wake of applause, feeling at once cheapened and triumphant.”
— Jessie Burton
“We’re nothing more than prisoners to your desire.”
— Jessie Burton
“The ink was secret nectar, for Marin isn’t married.”
— Jessie Burton
“There are horizons through the brickwork, you wait and see.”
— Jessie Burton
“The night darkens, the stars unfriendly, the cold a knife upon her neck – but Nella waits, until she can no longer difference between Johannes and the darkness that carries him away.”
— Jessie Burton
“What was once, is no longer.”
— Jessie Burton
“Neighbours watching neighbours, twisting ropes to bind us all.”
— Jessie Burton
“From little seeds great flowers grow.”
— Jessie Burton
“I feel younger than eighteen but burdened as a eighty-year-old.”
— Jessie Burton
“Believe it or don’t believe it, Madame. But my feet are tired too. Bloody tired. Like a dead man’s.”
— Jessie Burton
“Take care, take care. This city thrives! It’s money gives you wings to soar. But it is a yoke on your shoulders and you would do well to take note of the bruise around your neck.”
— Jessie Burton
“The rules of this house are written in water. I must either sink or swim.”
— Jessie Burton
“The turnip cannot thrive in the tulips patch of soil.”
— Jessie Burton
“Because, Petronella – it’s something in his soul. It’s something in his soul and you can’t get it out.”
— Jessie Burton
“All we can do if we’re lucky is stich up the mistakes other people make.”
— Jessie Burton
“That may be. But to decide that I was never going to live as a proper woman was not your choice to make.’ ‘What do you mean a proper woman?’ ‘A proper woman marries – she has children -‘ ‘Then what does that make me? Am I not a proper woman? Last time I looked I certainly was.”
— Jessie Burton
“Love your children, for they are the seeds that will make this city bloom.”
— Jessie Burton
“Words are water in this city. One drop of rumour could drown us.”
— Jessie Burton
“You are a stone, thrown upon a lake. But the ripples you create will never make you still.”
— Jessie Burton
“This city is like no other city in the world. It is brilliant but it is bloated, and I’ve never called it home”
— Jessie Burton