“And so they played some of the world's loveliest piano music - the exiled homesick girl, the humiliated, tired old man. Not properly. Better than that.”
― Eva Ibbotson, quote from A Countess Below Stairs
“Slowly, Anna put up a hand to his muzzle and began to scratch that spot behind the ear where large dogs keep their souls.”
― Eva Ibbotson, quote from A Countess Below Stairs
“When you're sad, my Little Star, go out of doors. It's always better underneath the open sky.”
― Eva Ibbotson, quote from A Countess Below Stairs
“She's like snow in Russian," said Anna. "Snow in the evening when the sun sets and it looks like Alpengluhen, you know? And if snow had a scent it would smell like that [the rose]....”
― Eva Ibbotson, quote from A Countess Below Stairs
“Shadows are cool and peaceful places for those whose minds are overstocked with treasure.”
― Eva Ibbotson, quote from A Countess Below Stairs
“How dare you suppose that I don't know who you are or what you are? That I don't understand what I see? Do you take me for some kind of besotted schoolboy? It is unspeakable! You could weigh as much as a hippopotamus and shave your head and wear a wig and it wouldn't make a difference to me. I never said you were beautiful. I never thought it. I said that you were you.”
― Eva Ibbotson, quote from A Countess Below Stairs
“For an instant she felt his touch on her cheek then he stepped back. There that was my ration for all eternity. People have died for less I dare say.”
― Eva Ibbotson, quote from A Countess Below Stairs
“To show too much joy in a place such as this would be unseemly but, as he padded toward her, his tail was extended in a manner which would make wagging possible should all go as expected.”
― Eva Ibbotson, quote from A Countess Below Stairs
“The dowager rose and slipped from her pew. There was the sound of tearing silk as she threw up her arms to embrace her son. Then:
"Oh, Rupert, darling," she exclaimed in tones of theatrical despair, "don't you see? The game's up!”
― Eva Ibbotson, quote from A Countess Below Stairs
“To this waltz, born in a distant, snowbound country out of longing for just such a flower-scented summer night as this, Rupert and Anna dance. They were under no illusions. The glittering chandeliers, the gold mirrors with their draped acanthus leaves, the plangent violins might be the stuff of romance, but this was no romance. It was a moment in a lifeboat before it sank beneath the waves; a walk across the sunlit courtyard towards the firing squad. This waltz was all they had.”
― Eva Ibbotson, quote from A Countess Below Stairs
“Muriel sprinkled salt over her haddock mousse. ‘It is not easy to be specific, but both morally and hygienically there is . . . a kind of laxness which I had not expected.’ Dr Lightbody leant forward. The discussion of hygienic and moral laxness with a beautiful woman in a softly shaded restaurant was exactly to his taste.”
― Eva Ibbotson, quote from A Countess Below Stairs
Eva Ibbotson
Born place: in Vienna, Austria
Born date January 21, 1925
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“Word to the wise: if you have to fight over a guy, he’s not worth it. Go for the one who’s waiting for you.”
― K.A. Tucker, quote from Five Ways to Fall
“Said to Mitch Album in "Tuesday's with Morrie": "The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. We're teaching the wrong things and you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it! CREATE YOUR OWN!”
― quote from Morrie: In His Own Words
“He doesn’t address you properly,” she said. “Because I told him not to. Seems a little silly to stand on ceremony with a man who’s had his finger up your arse.”
― Anthony Ryan, quote from Tower Lord
“There is no greater sorrow then to recall our times of joy in wretchedness.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Helvetti
“That’s how I know it was really love, I guess,” he says, his words bringing my head back to level, my eyes right to him. He’s still lost in the stars. “When you want something for someone else more than you want them to be here for you—when you just wish they had more time, rather than more time with you. I’m pretty sure that’s love.”
― Ginger Scott, quote from The Girl I Was Before
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