Frances Stevens: Even in this light, I can tell where your eyes are looking. Look John, hold them--diamonds--the only thing in the... world you can't resist. Then tell me you don't know what I'm talking about. Ever had a better offer in your whole life, one with everything? John Robie: I've never had a crazier one. Frances Stevens: Just as long as you're satisfied. John Robie: You know as well as I do, this necklace is imitation. Frances Stevens: Well, I'm not.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Frances Stevens: Mother, this is why I've had to spend half my life running around the world after you--to keep men like this away... from you. Mrs. Stevens: Well after this, let me run my own interference. It looks like the blockers are having all the fun.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Freedom of the press is essential to the preservation of a democracy; but there is a difference between freedom and license. Edito...rialists who tell downright lies in order to advance their own agendas do more to discredit the press than all the censors in the world.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Our security depends on the Allied Powers winning against aggressors. The Axis Powers intend to destroy democracy, it is anathema ...to them. We cannot provide that aid if the public are against it; therefore, it is our responsibility to persuade the public that aid to the victims of aggression is aid to American security. I expect the members of my administration to take every opportunity to speak to this issue wherever they are invited to address public forums in the weeks ahead.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The loneliest feeling in the world is when you think you are leading the parade and turn to find that no one is following you. No ...president who badly misguesses public opinion will last very long.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
You glorify the women who made their way to the front to reach you in your misery, and nurse you back to life. You called us angel...s. Who opened the way for women to go and make it possible?... For every woman's hand that ever cooled your fevered brows, staunched your bleeding wounds, gave food to your famished bodies, or water to your parching lips, and called back life to your perishing bodies, you should bless God for Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frances D. Gage and their followers.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
John Robie: And jewelry--you never wear any. Frances Stevens: I don't like cold things touching my skin.... John Robie: Why don't you invent some hot diamonds? Frances Stevens: I'd rather spend my money on more tangible excitement. John Robie: Tell me, what do you get a thrill out of most? Frances Stevens: I'm still looking for that one. He has ... a very good opinion of himself, which can by no means be considered a failing, for if a man does not esteem himself, he would certainly be very silly to expect the esteem of others. And although he is also well convinced of the importance of self-esteem, there is, perhaps, no one who more heartily detests open flattery than he does, and yet, strange to say, it sometimes sounds very pleasant to his ears; it puts him in such good humor with himself, and of course, with all about him, that he seems like quite another being while under its agreeable influence.... Now, I do not mean that he entertains an exalted opinion of his talents or acquirements, but merely that he thinks himself possessed of a good share of common sense, by which is meant a sound practical judgment of what is correct in the common affairs of life.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Obviously, where art has it over life is in the matter of editing. Life can be seen to suffer from a drastic lack of editing. It s...tops too quick, or else it goes on too long. Worse, its pacing is erratic. Some chapters are little more than a few sentences in length, while others stretch into volumes. Life, for all its raw talent, has little sense of structure. It creates amazing textures, but it can't be counted on for snappy beginnings or good endings either. Indeed, in many cases no ending is provided at all. The kind of work that Maxwell Perkins did for Thomas Wolfe, or more recently, that Verna Fields did for Stephen Spielberg, doesn't get done in life. Even in a literary age like the nineteenth century it never occurred to anyone to posit God as Editor, useful as the metaphor might have been.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »