Sleep demands of us a guilty immunity. There is not one of us who, given an eternal incognito, a thumbprint nowhere set against our souls, would not commit rape, murder and all abominations.
– Djuna Barnes
The heart of the jealous knows the best and most satisfying love, that of the other's bed, where the rival perfects the lover's imperfections.
– Djuna Barnes
The night is a skin pulled over the head of day that the day may be in torment.
– Djuna Barnes
We are adhering to life now with our last muscle - the heart.
– Djuna Barnes
We are beginning to wonder whether a servant girl hasn't the best of it after all. She knows how the salad tastes without the dressing, and she knows how life's lived before it gets to the parlor door.
– Djuna Barnes
Well, isn't Bohemia a place where everyone is as good as everyone else - and must not a waiter be a little less than a waiter to be a good Bohemian?
– Djuna Barnes
What is a ruin but time easing itself of endurance?