“Such an awful fragility of love he thought that plans are made and broken and remade in these gaps between rational behavior.” — Helen Simonson Copy Share Image
“He had always assumed gossip to be the malicious whispering of uncomfortable truths not the fabrication of absurdities. How was one to protect oneself against people making up things Was a life of careful impeccable behavior not enough in a… — Helen Simonson Copy Share Image
I later realized that this is my view of passion: It is rooted in genuine friendship. Chemistry may be two strangers exchanging smoldering looks—but… — Helen Simonson Copy Share Image
“There is often an inverse correlation between genius and personal hygiene.” — Helen Simonson Copy Share Image
But it's not enough to be in love. It's about how you spend your days, what you do together, who you choose as friends,… — Helen Simonson Copy Share Image
My neighbor Alice Pierce is fond of singing folk music to her garden plants. Thinks it makes them grow or something. The Major had… — Helen Simonson Copy Share Image
“do you really know what it means to be in love with an unsuitable woman?" "Is there any other kind?” — Helen Simonson Copy Share Image
“So he dreams himself the life he cannot have?” “Exactly. But we, who can do anything, we refuse to live our dreams on the… — Helen Simonson Copy Share Image
“he realized he had inspired a sense of trust and indebtedness that would make it entirely impossible for an honorable man to attempt to… — Helen Simonson Copy Share Image
“At our age, surely there are better things to sustain us, to sustain a marriage, than the brief flame of passion?" ..."You are mistaken,… — Helen Simonson Copy Share Image
“It took him a moment to realize that they had been painted to look like fingernails, and he sighed over the extraordinary range of… — Helen Simonson Copy Share Image
“She looked at him and he read in her eyes a disappointment that he should have stooped to the dead relative excuse. Yet he… — Helen Simonson Copy Share Image
“He had never imagined so clearly the consequences of mailing a letter—the impossibility of retrieving it from the iron mouth of the box; the… — Helen Simonson Copy Share Image