“Oh Harry," [Gwen] said. "I wish I were a different kind of person." What kind of person, he wanted to know. "Someone," she said slowly, "who truly loves life." He was still looking at her, still cradling his glasses in… — Elizabeth Hay Copy Share Image
“You see the same plain landscape day after day, and then one day, perhaps it's the play of light or the time of year, you find it beautiful and other landscapes at fault. So it must be with fashion. Ordinary judgement falls into abeyance and something else, some bewitchment, takes over. How else to explain the appeal of garments that… — Elizabeth Hay Copy Share
“What we lose is any sense that life is alive, she thought. The days follow one after the other and everything passes us by.… — Elizabeth Hay Copy Share Image
“You're brave to have driven all this way." Gwen considered for a moment whether this made her brave. In truth, she was always afraid,… — Elizabeth Hay Copy Share Image
“Forgiveness, she was thinking, was in some terrible, overeager way, a lack of curiosity. It was a big, powerful hose that washed everything away. She had, in effect, turned the hose on herself. "Of course I forgive you." As eager to reconcile as she has been in the schoolyard and in her first marriage too. Only to think that now… — Elizabeth Hay Copy Share
“Jim enjoyed watching people take sides. It increased the drama and he loved the drama. Yet it worried him too, since he wanted people… — Elizabeth Hay Copy Share Image
“The phrase that came to her mind was "the long and sudden of I." We go on and on through the long months of… — Elizabeth Hay Copy Share Image
“Who's to say we can't have many loves and many identities? we can hold more in our heads than we think.” — Elizabeth Hay Copy Share Image
“Oh Harry," [Gwen] said. "I wish I were a different kind of person." What kind of person, he wanted to know. "Someone," she said… — Elizabeth Hay Copy Share Image
You stand next to the sea and you're in touch with all your longings and all your losses. — Elizabeth Hay Copy Share Image
A child lies like a grey pebble on the shore until a certain teacher picks him up and dips him in water, and suddenly… — Elizabeth Hay Copy Share Image
“That's always the question. How to defend yourself without being nasty.” — Elizabeth Hay Copy Share Image
“You stay loyal to what increasingly disappoints you. It happens all the time.” — Elizabeth Hay Copy Share Image