The Blind Contessa's New Machine Quotes

“His small compliments and offhand remarks formed a new scripture, and in breathless conversations and lonely, dream-drunk nights they built whole theologies from them.”
― Carey Wallace, The Blind Contessa's New Machine

“On the day Contessa Carolina Fantoni was married, only one other living person knew that she was going blind, and he was not her groom.

This was not because she had failed to warn them.

“I am going blind,” she had blurted to her mother, in the welcome dimness of the family coach, her eyes still bright with tears from the searing winter sun. By this time, her peripheral vision was already gone. Carolina could feel her mother take her hand, but she had to turn to see her face. When she did, her mother kissed her, her own eyes full of pity.

“I have been in love, too,” she said, and looked away.”
― Carey Wallace, The Blind Contessa's New Machine

“The real danger in a storm, as you’re no doubt aware, is not weathering the open seas, but breaking up on shore.”
― Carey Wallace, The Blind Contessa's New Machine

“Her mind raced through the dark, throwing open doors, knocking over cabinets, searching for anything it ever remembered seeing. Then the lightning flashed again. Carolina captured it before it even struck land, a jagged scar of silver light suspended over the black chimneys of a sleeping city. She narrowed her eyes at the incomplete bolt until it shimmered and broke. With one sweeping glance, she cast the bits of light across the eastern sky as stars. Thunder roared in her ears and lightning cut the sky again. Her stars held steady over a ghostly desert. Another bolt charged down the night, but she caught it before it could turn the sand to glass, broke it into pieces, and lit the west.”
― Carey Wallace, The Blind Contessa's New Machine

“Great obstacles were the tutors of great men.”
― Carey Wallace, The Blind Contessa's New Machine

“Fear tapped a cold finger on Carolina’s heart. “Is”
― Carey Wallace, The Blind Contessa's New Machine