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A man is whole only when he takes into account his shadow as well as himself — and what is a man's shadow but his upright astonishment?

— Djuna Barnes Nightwood (1936)

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More quotes by Djuna Barnes

New York is the meeting place of the peoples, the only city where you can hardly find a typical American.

Life is not to be told, call it as loud as you like, it will not tell itself.

Nightwood (1936)

One's life is peculiar to one's own when one has invented it.

Nightwood (1936)

I am not a critic; to me criticism is so often nothing more than the eye garrulously denouncing the shape of the peephole that gives access to hidden treasure.

The heart of the jealous knows the best and most satisfying love, that of the other’s bed, where the rival perfects the lover’s imperfections.

Nightwood (1936)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Djuna Barnes (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.