Woman on Fire Quotes

“Shoes tell the whole story—who you are, what you can afford, if you are an impostor or the real deal.”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“Rule of thumb: The closer you are to a story, the further away you will be from the truth.”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“story.”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“to”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“Rogues’ Gallery: The Rise (and Occasional Fall) of Art Dealers, the Hidden Players in the History of Art by Philip Hook.”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“You are my favorite, and you know why? Because ‘instinct’ is not something that can be bought or sold or trained. The very best dealers are born with it.”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“If that guy could run away from someone like my mother, then I figured he didn’t merit running after.”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“Until they stole everything from us—our banks, our lifestyle, our humanity—and forced us to live in that cold, dark basement. I was just a young girl terrified of spiders. Scared all the time. But my father . . . he was a man”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“The ‘de’ part always makes me laugh, wondering how you, a Jew, managed to possess the coveted participle belonging exclusively to French nobility. Who did you pay off?”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“Instead, she is left picking up the pieces of a drunken, gambling womanizer; a despicable son of who squandered all the family jewels that fell like manna into his slippery lap. I hate him. My father’s dead— and I still hate him.”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“Your interests?” Dan baits her. “Tell me, why do you need to steal art? You’re one of the top art dealers in the world, from an art dynasty. Either you’re a psychopath or in dire financial straits and don’t want the world to know the truth.”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“This is what his ex-wife, Pam, was never able to comprehend, his insatiable need to nail down the truth, no matter the cost. Once Dan closes in, there’s nothing like it.”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“Yes, but lowlifes with a lot of expendable cash are a boost for my bank account. They’re all buying up expensive art to show off to their depraved friends to raise their status. Who cares? It’s a win for me.”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“I am, but I don’t like being controlled. Not anymore.” He leans forward. “You know exactly how I feel about Freund and his merry band of drug dealers. I don’t want that garbage anywhere near me.”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“He worked closely with Hugo Boss himself, a rabid anti-Semite and Nazi loyalist. I know exactly where you’re going with this, Mr. Bakker, using the painting as the segue to what you really want to find out. Been down that road more times than you can count.” He drops the pen to the table and stands. He’s jittery. Jules wonders if he’s on something. “It’s not a proud family legacy to have, believe me.”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“Margaux de Laurent should be placed number one on your hit list. She uses her employees, sleeps with them, controls them, abuses them, drugs them . . . It’s a game for her, destroying people’s lives. She blacklisted me in the art world. She has that kind”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“Yes . . . and the last time, and nearly every time in between.” His fists clenched, then unclenched. “She was my dealer and my handler. She nearly killed me—but I allowed it.” “Yet you painted before the drugs,” Jules pressed him. “Your talent was there before.” “That’s true,”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“Heroin took away the anxiety, the depression, the stress, all the constant demand. It was a powerful climb and then a slow free fall. When I used, I felt like I could do anything. I was in it. But the real magic happens on the way down.” He paused and turned to her. “Margaux was there. I was not in control—she was. She’d stick a canvas in my face and a brush in my hand right at that perfect-storm moment. She knew precisely when.”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“She pimps out her female workers to wealthy men to make sales. The older the man, the younger the woman assigned to sell him the painting. And it doesn’t stop there. ‘Margaux’s Girls,’ as she calls them, know they need to go the distance or their jobs are on the line . . . What that distance is, you can only imagine.” Adam”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“I don’t have time to ponder the bittersweet memories or get therapy for my loss. That ship has long sailed. I’m dying, Mr. Bakker. Just bring her back to me.”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“The illicit art market is considered the third-highest-grossing criminal trade in the world after drugs and arms—a value of nearly nine billion a year.”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“That, and only that, she learned from her mother, a society whore, whose entire life centered around practiced entrances.”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“She controlled him with her mind and her body, and later, when she felt him slipping away, the syringes did the work for her, until it went too far.”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“Four years since he overdosed on the heroin that she provided.”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“Nor do I want to. It’s provocative and sinister, but extraordinary.”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“I plan to leave no stone unturned, Mr. Baum. The Nazis, to their own detriment, created an impeccable paper trail, documenting everything they did.” She eyes Dan. “Our work begins.”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“Ellis nods. They all do. “Of course. He’s that famous art detective,” Ellis says. “Don’t they call him the Sherlock Holmes of international art theft? He’s the one who found that Rembrandt that was stolen from the Louvre in a cave in Slovenia, right?”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“The instant fame, the hard drugs, the bad boy rep, the arrests, the overdose, the rehab, and then, of course, the mysterious four-year disappearance. She even had to sign a nondisclosure agreement from Ellis before she came here.”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“Truth is that those bastards killed Ernst Engel long before they captured him.”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire

“When it hurts, Margaux, I find that the right painting always makes things better. Remember this: Art never leaves, even when people do.”
― Lisa Barr, Woman on Fire