Quote

We can't all be happy, we can't all be rich, we can't all be lucky - and it would be so much less fun if we were... There must be the dark background to show up the bright colours.

Jean Rhys

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Jean Rhys
Age: 88 †
Born: 1890
Born: August 24
Died: 1979
Died: May 14
Novelist
Writer
Ella Gwendolen Rees Williams
Ella Rees Williams
Life
Dark
Colours
Happy
Background
Less
Colour
Show
Backgrounds
Shows
Bright
Must
Lucky
Much
Fun
Would
Rich

More quotes by Jean Rhys

Image
I found when I was a child that if I put the hurt into words, it would go.
Jean Rhys
Image
The rumble of the life outside was like the sound of the sea which was rising gradually around her.
Jean Rhys
Image
As it was in the beginning, ... is now, and ever shall be, world without end.
Jean Rhys
Image
Of course she had some pathetic illusions about herself or she would not be able to go on living.
Jean Rhys
Image
The feeling of Sunday is the same everywhere, heavy, melancholy, standing still.
Jean Rhys
Image
Soon he'll come in again and kiss me, but differently. He'll be different and so I'll be different. It'll be different. I thought, 'It'll be different, different. It must be different.
Jean Rhys
Image
I didn't know, I didn't know, I didn't know.
Jean Rhys
Image
And then the days came when I was alone.
Jean Rhys
Image
All of a writer that matters is in the book or books. It is idiotic to be curious about the person.
Jean Rhys
Image
She could give herself up to the written word as naturally as a good dancer to music or a fine swimmer to water. The only difficulty was that after finishing the last sentence she was left with a feeling at once hollow and uncomfortably full. Exactly like indigestion.
Jean Rhys
Image
One realized all sorts of things. The value of an illusion, for instance, and that the shadow can be more important than the substance. All sorts of things.
Jean Rhys
Image
before I could read, almost a baby, I imagined that God, this strange thing or person I heard about, was a book.
Jean Rhys
Image
The woman had a humble, cringing manner. Of course, she had discovered that, having neither money nor virtue, she had better be humble if she knew what was good for her.
Jean Rhys
Image
I want more of this feeling - fire and wings.
Jean Rhys
Image
Not that she objected to solitude. Quite the contrary. She had books, thank Heaven, quantities of books. All sorts of books.
Jean Rhys
Image
All of writing is a huge lake. There are great rivers that feed the lake, like Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky. And then there are mere trickles, like Jean Rhys. All that matters is feeding the lake. I don't matter. The lake matters. You must keep feeding the lake.
Jean Rhys
Image
There is no doubt that running away on a fresh, blue morning can be exhilarating.
Jean Rhys
Image
I like shape very much. A novel has to have shape, and life doesn't have any.
Jean Rhys
Image
When I think about it, if I had to choose, I'd rather be happy than write.
Jean Rhys
Image
He had discovered that people who allow themselves to be blown about by the winds of emotion and impulse are always unhappy people.
Jean Rhys