320 pages
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“It is a bitter-sweet thing, knowing two cultures. Once you leave your birthplace nothing is ever the same.”
― quote from Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris
“Such is the nature of an expatriate life. Stripped of romance, perhaps that's what being an expat is all about: a sense of not wholly belonging. [...] The insider-outsider dichotomy gives life a degree of tension. Not of a needling, negative variety but rather a keep-on-your-toes sort of tension that can plunge or peak with sudden rushes of love or anger. Learning to recognise and interpret cultural behaviour is a vital step forward for expats anywhere, but it doesn't mean that you grow to appreciate all the differences.”
― quote from Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris
“The trail of lime trees outside our building is still a public loo. …where else are they supposed to go to the toilet in a city where public toilets are about as common as UFO sightings?” (pp.281-82)”
― quote from Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris
“I know of no other place that is so fascinating yet so frustrating, so aware of the world and its own place within it but at the same time utterly insular. A country touched by nostalgia, with a past so great - so marked by brilliance and achievement - that French people today seem both enriched and burdened by it. France is like a maddening, moody lover who inspires emotional highs and lows. One minute it fills you with a rush of passion, the next you're full of fury, itching to smack the mouth of some sneering shopkeeper or smug civil servant. Yes, it's a love-hate relationship.”
― quote from Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris
“You'd think the sight of beautiful Place Vendôme would lift my spirits but oddly the arc of jewellery - so obviously beyond the means of a jobless person like me - only depresses me more. I plod on feeling confused, guilty even, that I should feel unhappy in a place that looks like paradise.”
― quote from Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris
“Can I help you?" said Jane.
Though Jane herself had no inkling of it, those words were the keynote of her character. Any one else would probably have said, "What is the matter?" But Jane always wanted to help: and, though she was too young to realize it, the tragedy of her little existence was that nobody ever wanted her help.”
― L.M. Montgomery, quote from Jane of Lantern Hill
“If someone's different from you and it scares you or makes you mad, that's God telling you to take a closer look. If you're scared or mad, that's about you, not about the person who scares you or angers you.”
― Chris Crutcher, quote from Deadline
“...I'd killed my self-defense instructor. Shit.
I ran to where he lay and stumbled to a crouch at his side, touching his shoulder. "Craig?"
His eyelids fluttered. A few panicked heartbeats later, he opened them. Then he grinned.
"Yeah, that's what I'm talking about! You gotta learn to hit people." He was breathing hard. He had to gasp the words out. I'd probably knocked the wind out of him. "Now, never do that to me again."
-Kitty and her self defense teacher”
― Carrie Vaughn, quote from Kitty and the Midnight Hour
“Appena la porta si chiuse, Kait disse "Gabriel - come l'arcangelo?". Non riuscì a nascondere l'inflessione pesante di sarcasmo nella propria voce.
La porta si riaprì, e Gabriel la soppesò con un lungo sguardo. Poi fece balenare un luminoso, allarmante sorriso. "Tu puoi entrare ogni volta che vuoi", disse.”
― L.J. Smith, quote from The Strange Power
“...and Gareth bowed himself with all obedience to the King, and wrought
All kind of service with a noble ease
That graced the lowliest act in doing it.”
― Alfred Tennyson, quote from Idylls of the King
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