J A B C Quotes

Dogeared from The Jane Austen Book Club

[Grigg, the one man in the club, says about Northanger Abbey, "there's something very pomo going on there."] "The rest of us weren't intimate enough with postmodernism to give it a nickname. We'd heard the word used in sentences, but its definition seemed to change with its context. We weren't troubled by this. Over at the university, people were paid to worry about such things; they'd soon have it well in hand."

"No one with real integrity tries to sell their integrity to you. People with real integrity hardly notice they have it. You see a campaign that focuses on chracter, rectitude, probity, and that's exactly when you should start asking yourself, What's this guy trying to hide?"

"When I was driving to the hospital," Sylvia said, "I thought if Allegra was all right I would be the happiest woman in the world. And she was, and I was. But today the sink is backed up and there are roaches in the garage and I don't have time to deal with any of it. The newspaper is filled with poverty and war. Already I have to remind myself to be happy. And you know, if it were the other way, if something had happened to Allegra, I wouldn't have to remind myself to be unhappy. I'd be unhappy for the rest of my life. Why should unhappiness be so much more powerful than happiness?"