234 Quotes by Katherine Mansfield

I feel I must live alone, alone, alone – with artists only to touch the door. Every artist cuts off his ear and nails it on the outside of the door for the others to shout into.

Yes, my mother’s death is a terrible sorrow to me. I feel – do you know what I mean – the silence of it so. She was more alive than anyone I have ever known.

Can one do nothing for the dead? And for a long time the answer had been – Nothing!

Now’s the time when children’s noses All become as red as roses And the colour of their faces Makes me think of orchard places Where the juicy apples grow, And tomatoes in a row.

But one day we shall be rich, and the next poor. One day we shall dine in a palace and the next we’ll sit in a forest and toast mushrooms on a hatpin...

I must say, I hate money. But it’s the lack of it I hate most.

And it seemed to her that kisses, voices, tinkling spoons, laughter, the smell of crushed grass were somehow inside her.

Then something immense came into view; an enormous shock-haired giant with his arms stretched out. It was the big gum-tree outside Mrs. Stubbs’ shop, and as they passed by there was a strong whiff of eucalyptus. And now big spots of light gleamed in the mist. The shepherd.

She had become really quite expert, she thought, at listening as though she didn’t listen, at sitting in other people’s lives just for a minute while they talked round her.