The Princess of 72nd Street Quotes

“Soft hissing waves run over my toes. The floor is a beach and I am rolling on the sand and splashing in the water with a white heron. It turns gray and blue. No one can stop this. No one will take away my radiance even when it floods over me completely.”
― Elaine Kraf, The Princess of 72nd Street

“I really wish I could be enough for someone.”
― Elaine Kraf, The Princess of 72nd Street

“Isn’t it these strange actions—unknown, innocent, spontaneous—that tend to shape our lives?”
― Elaine Kraf, The Princess of 72nd Street

“If I were quiet, I might be able to concentrate on getting the fragments of my life together. But there are noises inside my head from all those departures. Although the bumps and sores are fading, my skin burns and stings. Most of the time I rest on my unmade bed. Why must the phone ring? I am startled, nearly jump to the ceiling whenever it does. I don't want to speak to anyone for a long time. Yet I feel so alone.”
― Elaine Kraf, The Princess of 72nd Street

“I banished him from my realm. By banishing someone I mean deciding that he no longer exists. Once I decide that someone does not exist it is all over for him.”
― Elaine Kraf, The Princess of 72nd Street

“Men should be blind.”
― Elaine Kraf, The Princess of 72nd Street

“Alan’s response was an experience so new, so unique, and so unexpected that I became somewhat nervous about it. I worried that he was martyring himself and would make up for it later by slitting my throat or discovering some blemish on me. Or he might simply forget to put my requests into action when it came down to the real situation. Or else, once having achieved his goal of torturing me in a restaurant he would become satiated, stop sending flowers, and never call again.”
― Elaine Kraf, The Princess of 72nd Street

“There is always a punishment for radiance. I had forgotten. People hate it when you are happy for no reason, or when your personality changes. I used to become a water lily. They like everyone to act the same way forever.”
― Elaine Kraf, The Princess of 72nd Street

“Don’t let me lie on this filthy floor in the darkness. Numbness alternates with rage. Don’t let this rage paralyze me. I don’t want to be alone anymore. Come quickly—before it is too late, before the light goes out forever. Help me wake up. This must be an endless dream of death. Even the fruits taste like ash. There are no textures—only a flat sour smell everywhere. Turn my fear into mist. Make golden flowers appear. Remove this desolation. I want everything to glow softly with blurred outlines. I want people to mean what they say.”
― Elaine Kraf, The Princess of 72nd Street

“Men are always late with their love.”
― Elaine Kraf, The Princess of 72nd Street

“I cannot lie—not even when it comes to the question of tall people. I am sorry to hurt the feelings of tall people in my kingdom and without. Some of my best friends and lovers are tall. But if you study the matter carefully you will notice that small people, both men and women, are prettier, in better proportion, look younger, and are sweeter and more generous than tall ones. It is better to be short than tall.”
― Elaine Kraf, The Princess of 72nd Street

“Every man will make both the most beautiful or the most homely woman, according to current standards, feel unattractive most of the time. I don’t think they do it purposely or unconsciously. It is in their eyes.”
― Elaine Kraf, The Princess of 72nd Street

“Every man will make both the most beautiful or the most homely woman, according to current standards, feel unattractive most of the time.”
― Elaine Kraf, The Princess of 72nd Street

“I was astonished-- since when were any of my requests reasonable, not to mention "perfectly" so? Hadn't Adolphe left and not returned for days when I asked him if we could lie down together? Didn't George foam at the mouth and tear rags when I expressed an opinion that contradicted his own? And I remember that Rombert always refused when I asked him if he would sleep over on 72nd Street. All of them, in fact, had always done whatever they wished, sexually or otherwise, without taking my wishes into consideration at all.”
― Elaine Kraf, The Princess of 72nd Street

“I am going forward but very cautiously.”
― Elaine Kraf, The Princess of 72nd Street

“God, it scares me to have you call, to hear your voice, I would never know who you would change into, your face, the memory of it, frightens me, I don't want to see it again”
― Elaine Kraf, The Princess of 72nd Street

“You cannot torture me ever again, why should I live with you, you have some nerve after turning me away, what for, you didn't love me, you didn't let me talk or laugh or sing, I did whatever you wanted me to, choked on my silence even, trying so hard to please you”
― Elaine Kraf, The Princess of 72nd Street

“For the past five minutes I have been a water lily. Sometimes I become a flower or a moth.”
― Elaine Kraf, The Princess of 72nd Street