255 Quotes by Patricia Highsmith

And she did not have to ask if this was right, no one had to tell her, because this could not have been more right or perfect.

What immense satisfaction it must be to fashion a story like [Maupassant's]! One must say 'fashion' because it is not merely writing, but massing and cutting away like a sculptor, chiseling lean and clear. And to put one's work confidently in the crucible of Time; to know that in six perfect pages is the finest form of one's idea: This satisfaction is the only true reward of the artist, and this his highest possible joy on Earth.

My story can move fast, as I can't, it can have a reasonable and perhaps perfect solution, as mine can't. A solution that is somehow satisfying, as my personal solution never can be.

Happiness was like a green vine spreading through her, stretching fine tendrils, bearing flowers through her flesh.

But there were too many points at which the other self could invade the self he wanted to preserve, and there were too many forms of invasion: certain words, sounds, lights, actions his hands or feet performed, and if he did nothing at all, heard and saw nothing, the shouting of some triumphant inner voice that shocked him and cowed him.

My imagination functions much better when I don't have to speak to people.

Do people always fall in love with things they can't have?''Always,' Carol said, smiling, too.

An artist does things naturally, without effort. Some power guides his hand. A forger struggles, and if he succeeds, it is a genuine achievement.

I know you have it in you, Guy," Anne said suddenly at the end of a silence, "the capacity to be terribly happy.