Jean Rhys
Jean Rhys
Jean Rhys, CBE, born Ella Gwendolyn Rees Williams, was a mid-20th-century novelist who was born and grew up in the Caribbean island of Dominica, though she was mainly resident in England from the age of 16. She is best known for her novel Wide Sargasso Sea, written as a prequel to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth24 August 1894
night littles dinner
I have been here five days. I have decided on a place to eat in at midday, a place to eat in at night, a place to have my drink in after dinner. I have arranged my little life.
dream lying magic
Only the magic and the dream are true — all the rest's a lie.
age aging jerk
Age seldom arrives smoothly or quickly. It's more often a succession of jerks.
knows
I didn't know, I didn't know, I didn't know.
writing thinking ifs
When I think about it, if I had to choose, I'd rather be happy than write.
wind people unhappy
He had discovered that people who allow themselves to be blown about by the winds of emotion and impulse are always unhappy people.
being-yourself children soul
When you are a child you are yourself and you know and see everything prophetically. And then suddenly something happens and you stop being yourself; you become what others force you to be. You lose your wisdom and your soul.
eye thinking circles
I hadn't bargained for this. I didn't think it would be like this - shabby clothes, worn-out shoes, circles under your eyes, your hair getting straight and lanky, the way people look at you. ... I didn't think it would be like this
giving unhappy firsts
For the first time she had dimly realized that only the hopeless are starkly sincere and that only the unhappy can either give or take sympathy--even some of the bitter and dangerous voluptuousness of misery.
home today armor
Today I must be very careful, today I have left my armor at home.
past practice sentimental
No past to make us sentimental, no future to embarrass us...a difficult moment when you are out of practice - a moment that makes you go cold, cold and wary.
thinking weight ankles
Every word I say has chains round its ankles; every thought I think is weighted with heavy weights.
beautiful successful wish
Now I no longer wish to be loved, beautiful, happy or successful. I want one thing and one thing only - to be left alone.
thinking mirrors imagine
You imagine the carefully pruned, shaped thing that is presented to you is truth. That is just what it isn't. The truth is improbable, the truth is fantastic; it's in what you think is a distorting mirror that you see the truth.