Other People's Clothes Quotes

“had a nearly full scholarship, I could make an omelette and I knew I wanted to be an artist. I believed that should be enough.”
― Calla Henkel, Other People’s Clothes

“She watched all the episodes of Sex and the City, swaying into the downtown bars and ordering a cosmopolitan, wondering if that’s all it would take to make the confetti of young adulthood start falling.”
― Calla Henkel, Other People’s Clothes

“Whenever he'd launch into talking, his turtle-green eyes would get a dark zoom when he rummaged for words, like a hand silently dipping into a Scrabble bag, feeling for the next vowel.”
― Calla Henkel, Other People's Clothes

“I zoned out while staring at the bright jade beads that clung to her neck on a twist of thick silver. They looked expensive. Probably a gift after one of Tobias’s infidelities. I wanted that timeline: tennis bracelet for the bartender at King Size, a Mercedes-Benz S-Class for the stripper in Basel, an Oscar de la Renta gown after the stewardess over the Atlantic – or more likely Claire had a contract drawn up demanding a cheque be deposited in her personal bank account for each indiscretion.”
― Calla Henkel, Other People’s Clothes

“I mean like, first the von Habsburg and now she’s obsessed with Mel, who by the way isn’t a Kennedy. I know she’s your roommate but—’ She pulled a safety pin from her purse, holding the point up to her eye, separating each lash, ‘Why are you even throwing these parties? Don’t you want to be an artist?’ Her lashes now looked like plucked spider legs, she shifted one eye to meet mine in the mirror, ‘I mean – don’t you want to take yourself seriously?’ ‘Hailey’s not a star-fucker and the parties are – art.”
― Calla Henkel, Other People’s Clothes

“Friends were inspired to undercut each other with personal tidbits: Republican parents, unread seminal texts, porn predilections, leveraging weakness and sharing anecdotes that were wholly irrelevant to the work in question, all in the pursuit of power.”
― Calla Henkel, Other People’s Clothes

“I wasn’t in the mood for therapy, I was about to get my period and it was schnitzel night,”
― Calla Henkel, Other People’s Clothes

“But I was impressed at Jens’s ability to wear both a button-up and a turtleneck at the same time, such a violent thing to do to a neck.”
― Calla Henkel, Other People’s Clothes

“She deserves more credit for this. She’s just out there living her fiction.”
― Calla Henkel, Other People’s Clothes

“Germans love applause”—she looked down at her own moving hands—“to the point where it hurts.”
― Calla Henkel, Other People’s Clothes

“All i could do was understand the small deaths - the empty chair, or the fact that she would never shower after the beach.”
― Calla Henkel, Other People's Clothes

“I could feel him fall in love with me. And I was ahead of him by a full few seconds, like a rocket looking back just to make sure the second had launched.”
― Calla Henkel, Other People's Clothes

“Start from the beginning,' she insisted and if I were allowed to smoke, I would have lit a cigarette.”
― Calla Henkel, Other People's Clothes

“Everything is about sex, except sex.”
― Calla Henkel, Other People's Clothes

“The airplane to Orlando was cold and quiet. I wanted peanuts, something salty. I shakily asked the flight attendant, who responded, “The peanut days are over.” The phrase felt like an epitaph.”
― Calla Henkel, Other People’s Clothes

“When the door creaked open we were hit by the smell of flowers, like at a funeral, sharp and final. A jet-black-haired woman stuck out a hand equipped with five crimson fingernails, and introduced herself as Beatrice Becks, her B’s popping when she said her name, “Beee-atrice Beee-cks.” I smiled cautiously, tossing the name in my mind like a coin.”
― Calla Henkel, Other People’s Clothes

“He was one year older than me, a cynical computer dork with an intense MacBook stare—whenever he’d launch into talking, his turtle-green eyes would get a dark zoom while he rummaged for words, like a hand silently dipping into a Scrabble bag, feeling for the next vowel.”
― Calla Henkel, Other People’s Clothes

“My mom wasn’t alone in her transformation – Claire’s neon wardrobe had parlayed perfectly to the speedy news segments summarising the pulp case, she had emerged as the real winged creature, the one who had believed me all along, harnessing her fame into a new law practice. She had even sent me a selfie, taken in front of a pair of glass doors overlooking Ku’damm, cheekily etched with Breitbach and Daughters. She’d left Tobias. He couldn’t handle her success, couldn’t handle the power-suits return to work.”
― Calla Henkel, Other People’s Clothes

“Oh, it’s straightforward but also not. Beatrice says she only found out On Blue Peak was plagiarised when a lawsuit arrived four years ago – they paid over a million in multiple settlements. So she clearly knew her mother had a history of this sort of behaviour, but she insists that she didn’t know she was watching you two.”
― Calla Henkel, Other People’s Clothes

“missed drinking. I missed talking with friends, the late nights, snorting things, fucking people. Then as if a slide in the darkened room of art history class, the bright-red image of Hailey’s body in a room of fake blood flashed.”
― Calla Henkel, Other People’s Clothes

“The door of the bar swung open and a tangle of British ‘blokes’ sauntered through, stinking of Ryanair-pre-planned-pub-crawling.”
― Calla Henkel, Other People’s Clothes

“That’s economic subservience. That’s normal—’ She pointed to Hailey who was strutting around the other room, ‘What you guys have is different, it’s not my business – but it seems like some sort of transitional dependence. You should deal before you snap.’ I knew”
― Calla Henkel, Other People’s Clothes

“Look, I’m not interested in monogamy. You have to understand. I fully grasp the complexities of carnal greed, I was a very high-powered lawyer, that’s how I met Tobias – divorce court. I advised. We have rules. I also have my fun, but I don’t like it when it’s close to home and I am truly sorry you had to deal with that. I thank you for being so forthcoming.’ ‘I told him I was gay,’ I blurted.”
― Calla Henkel, Other People’s Clothes

“The perks of this man’s creepiness are spectacular. Why would Claire be OK with you getting all this stuff?’ ‘She said she didn’t wear other people’s clothes – vintage.”
― Calla Henkel, Other People’s Clothes

“She said vintage as if it were an STD, then touched her ear signalling Bluetooth, her clicking heels fading into the hallway.”
― Calla Henkel, Other People’s Clothes

“Our ‘last photo of 2008’ had the same improbable unfortunateness with our over-painted lips and trashy poses, destined for some disaster.”
― Calla Henkel, Other People’s Clothes

“Yes! It’s The Crucible as perfect pop-media-gore. By far my favourite piece of performance this year. Well, other than all the celebrity car crashes.’ We all looked at her blankly. ‘Come on, Lindsay Lohan got another DUI. No one has a publicist any more.”
― Calla Henkel, Other People’s Clothes

“New York, Berlin whatever, not living in bumfuck Wyoming. You fell in love at a funeral. You were being an emotional vampire.’ I frowned at the phrase emotional vampire.”
― Calla Henkel, Other People’s Clothes

“But she’s bulimic—’ she scoffed, ‘like have some self-control, there’s really nothing more pathetic. Bulimics should all be rounded up and shot, eat your fucking food or don’t.”
― Calla Henkel, Other People’s Clothes

“mat, ‘I hate openings here. At least in New York you don’t feel like you’re outside of some secret society.’ ‘It does seem like the same thirty people at each opening,’ I added.”
― Calla Henkel, Other People’s Clothes