Edith Templeton

“You are like a child who whistles in the dark. As though the dark cared, my poor child, as though the dark cared.”

“Beyond my upset I was flooded by a deep happiness, similar to the one he made me feel when forcing me to surrender to his virility. No one else before him had given me this gratification, but I realised now that the longing to be violated, body and soul, must have always been inside me.”

“It was though I had been in possession of one of those small shells with Japanese flowers which are sold at street corners. When plunged into a bowl of water, the tightly sealed shell opens and the flat, dry, coiled-up, insignificant shreds of paper contained within float out and unfold their variegated and unsuspected splendour; with Gordon I had found my bowl of water.”

“My mind sometimes wanders. Do unto others and so on. Very nice again, but what if others have a different taste from yours? I don't remember who said it.”

“Women are like teeth. Some tremble and never fall and some fall and never tremble.”