Invitation to a Bonfire Quotes

“I hesitate to describe the work that earned me Bs and Cs that year as plagiarism: every word I wrote was my own. It's just the ideas that were borrowed, and the passion for them. My instructors were all relieved to find my papers suddenly passable - no one likes to fail the war orphan. And for my part, I came to enjoy whipping up a textual froth from the enthusiasms of Tolstoy, Thoreau, or de Tocqueville. If my ideas contradicted themselves from one assignment to the next - well. That was seen as the purview of youth. No one minded theft or inconsistency, even vitriol, so long as it meant you were making a statement. This was my first great lesson in being American, and I took it to heart.”
― Adrienne Celt, Invitation to a Bonfire

“No one minded theft or inconsistency, even vitriol, so long as it meant you were making a statement. This was my first great lesson in being American, and I took it to heart.”
― Adrienne Celt, Invitation to a Bonfire

“Her morning thoughts were frequently on the darker side, given as she was to holding over the remnants of forgotten dreams.”
― Adrienne Celt, Invitation to a Bonfire

“You'll have doubtless sense the space closing, reader, between where I sit now, writing with my cheap black pen, and where I was, then. A time eclipse. The two moments slowly moving together until a window emerges where like meets like. You can't jump through, but you can at least peek, pressing your face against the glass to feel the heat from fading summer sun.”
― Adrienne Celt, Invitation to a Bonfire

“Why hold on to all this, you might ask? I don't know where else to keep it. I don't know how to put it down.”
― Adrienne Celt, Invitation to a Bonfire

“Was I apprehensive, reader? Naturally I was. I'd expected an unwilling participant, a Vera of cold and ice pushing me away with both hands. I'd found instead a bosom buddy, ready-made. To easy. Too neat.”
― Adrienne Celt, Invitation to a Bonfire

“You have to understand, I didn’t let him keep me from proper hygiene, but I took special pleasure in getting ready now, knowing he wouldn’t be around to pout or moan about my hairspray. Anyhow, one always dresses with more care for a woman.”
― Adrienne Celt, Invitation to a Bonfire

“The scent changes, though, as you hop between tongues. I’m not sure how you achieve the effect, but you can trust me. I am fluent in you.”
― Adrienne Celt, Invitation to a Bonfire