179 Quotes by Djuna Barnes

So then I whispered, 'What is this thing, Lord?' and I began to cry; the tears went like rain goes down on the world without touching the face of Heaven. Suddenly I realized that it was the first time in my life my tears were strange to me because they just went straight forward out of my eyes;

The only people who really know anything about medical science are the nurses, and they never tell; they'd get slapped if they did. But the great doctor, he's a divine idiot and a wise man.

Everything can be used in a lifetime; I've discovered that.

Robin is not in your life, you are in her dream, you'll never get out of it. And why does Robin feel innocent? Every bed she leaves, without caring, fills her heart with peace and happiness. She has made her "escape" again. That's why she can't "put herself in another's place," she herself is the only "position"; so she resents it when you reproach her with what she had done. She knows she is innocent because she can't do anything in relation to anyone but herself.

Love of two things often makes one thing right. Think of the fish racing the sea, their love of air and water turning them like wheels, their tails and teeth biting the water, their spines curved round the air.

Every hour is my last, and," she said desperately,"one can't live one's last hour all one's life!

A man is whole only when he takes into account his shadow.

She was one of the most unimportantly wicked women of her time - because she could not let her time alone, and yet could never be a part of it.

His sanity is an unknown room: a known room is always smaller than an unknown.