The City of Falling Angels Quotes

“Loneliness is not being alone, It's loving others to no avail.”
― John Berendt, The City of Falling Angels

“In Venice," she said, "no matter what you say, everyone will assume you're lying. Venetians always embellish, and they take it for granted you will, too. So you might as well...”
― John Berendt, The City of Falling Angels

“Death in Venice, The Wings of the Dove, The Aspern Papers, Don’t Look Now, Summertime, Across the River and Into the Trees, The Comfort of Strangers.”
― John Berendt, The City of Falling Angels

“Why a perfect ending? Things are left hanging.
Yes, but this is the sort of ending Venice can live with, happily and forever. Look what the story offers: a great fire, a cultural calamity, the spectacle of public officials blaming each other, an unseemly rush for the money to rebuild the theater, the satisfaction of a trial with guilty verdicts and jail sentences, the pride of the Fenice's rebirth, and and unsolved mystery. Money secretly changing hands. Unnamed culprits hiding in the shadows. It stimulates the imagination, gives people the freedom to make up any scenario they want. What more could anyone ask?”
― John Berendt, The City of Falling Angels

“You can be a snob upward by associating with people on a level above you or a snob downward by dismissing people below you.”
― John Berendt, The City of Falling Angels

“Guthrie sat in silence for a moment, mulling over Barbara Berlingieri's purposely degrading offer and letting his mind wander a bit: What if he had stepped aside and let the surgeon at the hospital sew up her face instead of doing it himself? And what if the head surgeon, who had never performed plastic surgery before, had tightened the stitching of the muscles in her cheek a bit too much and left her wit ha sneer instead of her natural smile? What if he had sewn the vermilion border straight across, without first making a notch, so that it had a permanent pucker? No. It was better that Bob Guthrie had stepped into the breach. Because now and for the rest of her life, Barbara Berlingieri would look into her mirror upon rising, check her reflection as she passed shop windows, peer into her compact while refreshing her makeup, and in these and a dozen other ways every day confront her image and be reminded of Bob Guthrie's genius and of her own towering ingratitude.”
― John Berendt, The City of Falling Angels

“Paintings all around the city had become soot-blackened, moldy, and brittle. Many of the most important were housed in churches, where they were unprotected from the elements because of holes in the roofs. At the same time, a great many buildings had eroding foundations and crumbling facades. It was a common hazard for chunks of walls bricks, slabs of marble, cornices, and other decorative elements to come crashing down from on high. The whole eastern wall of the Gesuiti Church was in danger of falling into an adjacent canal. After part of a marble angel fell from a parapet of the ornate but sadly dilapidated Santa Maria della Salute Church, Arrigo Cipriani, the owner of Harry's Bar, posted a sign outside the church warning, "Beware of Falling Angels.”
― John Berendt, The City of Falling Angels

“Am I not a public nuisance?
During Carnival, maestro, everyone is a public nuisance. The rules are different. Come back and do this again next week. Then maybe we'll arrest you.”
― John Berendt, The City of Falling Angels

“If your poison is as effective as you say it is, why are there any rats left in Venice at all?
Very simple! Venice doesn't use my poison. The city council always awards contracts to the lowest bidder, so I don't even bother submitting a bid. I'm prepared to make my contribution to humanity, but -- humanity must be willing to make a contribution to me.”
― John Berendt, The City of Falling Angels

“Me, I live in terror of the day they understand me, because it will mean I'm just like them. And that will be the end of my life, because all my life I've wanted not to be understood.”
― John Berendt, The City of Falling Angels

“Strong stuff, but you once told me that Venetians always mean the opposite of what they say.
True, and when I told you that, I meant the opposite of what I said.”
― John Berendt, The City of Falling Angels

“To be Venetian, and to know how to live in Venice is an art. It is our way of living, so different from the rest of the world. Venice is built not only of stone but of a very thin web of words, spoken and remembered, of stories and legends, of eye-witness accounts and hearsay. To work and operate in Venice means first of all to understand its differences and its fragile equilibrium. In Venice we move delicately and in silence. And with great subtlety. We are a very Byzantine people, and that is certainly not easy to understand.”
― John Berendt, The City of Falling Angels

“There you have it, acted out before your eyes. An allegory: the strong versus the weak. It's always the same. The powerful always win, and the weak always come back to be victims all over again.”
― John Berendt, The City of Falling Angels

“Two camps formed: the anti-Rylands group and the Rylandses themselves. There wasn't really a pro-Rylands camp.”
― John Berendt, The City of Falling Angels

“It's worse than absurd. It's contradictory, hypocritical, irresponsible, dangerous, dishonest, corrupt, unfair, and completely mad. Welcome to Venice.”
― John Berendt, The City of Falling Angels

“Bribery is a way of life in Venice, but you can't really call it bribery. It's accepted as a legitimate part of the economy.”
― John Berendt, The City of Falling Angels

“Everyone in Venice is acting. Everyone plays a role, and the role changes. The key to understanding Venetians is rhythm -- the rhythm of the lagoon, the rhythm of the water, the tides, the waves...”
― John Berendt, The City of Falling Angels