The Devil and Webster Quotes

“That thing you dread, after all, when it comes, if it comes, it doesn’t matter how unsurprising it turns out to be; it is still that thing you dread, and it has still happened. She’d had a little reprieve, Naomi saw, but now it was here. The thing. This thing: Hannah was leaving. Hannah had grown up and she was leaving, and Naomi had no sympathy for herself, because the whole fact of it was so very ordinary. But it was everything, too.”
― Jean Hanff Korelitz, The Devil and Webster

“And I suppose this is you speaking truth to power. The principle your whole life is organized around.” Naomi started. There was loathing in the way it was said. She had never suspected. She shook her head sadly. “No, I don’t think I can do that anymore. As you pointed out to me, I’m the power. This is me speaking power to truth.”
― Jean Hanff Korelitz, The Devil and Webster

“Or accomplish anything,” Naomi said, rolling her eyes. “Oh, they’re accomplishing plenty. They’re compiling influence. They’re emerging from the crowd.” “Gaining ‘likes.’ Getting ‘retweeted.’” “That’s part of it. No point denying it.” “Building their brands. Getting famous.”
― Jean Hanff Korelitz, The Devil and Webster

“What kind of protest declines dialogue with its opponent?” “A modern one,” Francine said dryly. “These kids are not like we were. You were,” she corrected. “Interaction across the battle lines isn’t what they’re after. They want to build their own constituencies. They want to represent something to their peers more than they want to gain respect from their opponents.”
― Jean Hanff Korelitz, The Devil and Webster

“Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” Kierkegaard said that, and Naomi had always admired the eerie perfection of this simple insight.”
― Jean Hanff Korelitz, The Devil and Webster