Quotes from Luncheon of the Boating Party

Susan Vreeland ·  434 pages

Rating: (6.5K votes)


“I've come to think that if doing something simple or silly can give a person pleasure, then, by God, do it”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from Luncheon of the Boating Party


“He had a thought that amused him. "Figures, still life, landscape, AND an animal! Zola, eat your hat!" he bellowed.”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from Luncheon of the Boating Party


“At this stage of life, he'd better just lean into love, because if he fell, he feared he might break a hip.”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from Luncheon of the Boating Party


“If you want to preach, young man, you ought to wear some kind of clerical costume so people would be warned. In my mind, there are too many unpleasant things in life as it is without creating still more of them. I hate le misérabilisme. I’m in the shining business, not the darkening business.”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from Luncheon of the Boating Party


“She plucked a raspberry. Sweet juice, sweet pleasure. Within the tangle of tendrils, inside a blossom, a tiny bead was kisses and blessed by the sun, from which it took in light and warmth and heaven's rain imbued with the richness of the soil of France. All of the elements of the river world helped that bead to expand and multiply into sheer casings for sweet pulp, wedge together in a knobby globe until it released its juice in her mouth”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from Luncheon of the Boating Party



“One more thing. She wears Patchouli. Every tart in Montmartre wears it. Place Pigalle reeks of it. If she wants to carry out her pose as an aristocrat, she ought to refine her tastes.”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from Luncheon of the Boating Party


“life we can’t control, she thought. We must accept the cork we are and stay afl, and bob gaily when we can. She”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from Luncheon of the Boating Party


“How does one end a moment like this? It would kill her to feel him pull away. She had to be first. In a moment. One moment more. Yes. Now”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from Luncheon of the Boating Party


About the author

Susan Vreeland
Born place: in Racine, WI, The United States
Born date January 20, 1946
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Achan gritted his teeth and recalled Sir Eagan's words. Love was not taking because you wanted, he'd said. Love was sacrifice.”
― Jill Williamson, quote from From Darkness Won


“Mickey Cray had been out of work ever since a dead iguana fell from a palm tree and hit him on the head.”
― Carl Hiaasen, quote from Chomp


“We must have several word-signs," said Syme seriously -- "words that we are likely to want, fine shades of meaning. My favourite word is 'coeval.' What's yours?"
"Do stop playing the goat," said the Professor plaintively. "You don't know how serious this is."
"'Lush,' too, " said Syme, shaking his head sagaciously, "we must have ' lush' -- word applied to grass, don't you know?"
"Do you imagine," asked the Professor furiously, "that we are going to talk to Dr. Bull about grass?"
"There are several ways in which the subject could be approached," said Syme reflectively, "and the word introduced without appearing forced. We might say, ' Dr. Bull, as a revolutionist, you remember that a tyrant once advised us to eat grass; and indeed many of us, looking on the fresh lush grass of summer--"'
"Do you understand," said the other, "that this is a tragedy?"
"Perfectly," replied Syme; "always be comic in a tragedy. What the deuce else can you do? I wish this language of yours had a wider scope. I suppose we could not extend it from the fingers to the toes? That would involve pulling off our boots and socks during the conversation, which however unobtrusively performed -- "
"Syme," said his friend with a stern simplicity, "go to bed!”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Man Who Was Thursday


“Joy Division was scheduled to play at Tier 3, but Ian Curtis killed himself a week before the gig.”
― Kim Gordon, quote from Girl in a Band


“The ministerial students were the worst—they were maybe one-third to one-half of each class, and this was their trade school. They came to learn the right words, all the proper formulae ... which they wrote down and memorized from the lectures of their profs.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, quote from What It Takes: The Way to the White House


Interesting books

Ellen Foster
(25.4K)
Ellen Foster
by Kaye Gibbons
The Kindly Ones
(6.5K)
The Kindly Ones
by Jonathan Littell
The Winner's Crime
(42.5K)
The Winner's Crime
by Marie Rutkoski
Turtles All the Way Down
(111.3K)
Turtles All the Way...
by John Green
Infinite Days
(9K)
Infinite Days
by Rebecca Maizel
Uncommon Criminals
(38.1K)
Uncommon Criminals
by Ally Carter

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.