A collection quotes by Daphne Du Maurier on writing, dreams, fiction, love, happiness, life, adversity, fear, past, relationships, humor, solitude, youth and friends.
100 Notable Quotes By Daphne Du Maurier That Make Her Timeless
Daphne Du Maurier was an English writer and playwright, who become one of the most-well known literary figures of the 20th century. Maurier was born in a highly connected family, her mother being the actress Muriel Beaumont and father, the actor manager Sir Gerald Du Maurier. The connections of her family made it possible for her to get into the world of literature, however it must be said that it was only through her own prowess that she became a world renowned author of great repute. After writing for a while for a magazine named ‘Bystander’, she published her first novel ‘The Loving Spirit’ in 1931. Most of her books were based on love stories that mostly had a happy ending. That was probably a big reason why her novels and plays gained a lot of popularity. Some of her most famous works, which went on to become cult classics and are read even today are the novels ‘Rebecca and Jamaica Inn’, while the short stories ‘Don’t Look Now’ and ‘The Birds’ are also considered to be among her finest works. Her work, thoughts and writings are still read widely. Here are some of the most profound quotes from the life, times and works of Daphne Du Maurier that you would surely enjoy.Â
I suppose sooner or later in the life of everyone comes a moment of trial. We all of us have our particular devil who rides us and torments us, and we must give battle in the end.
Either you go to America with Mrs. Van Hopper or you come home to Manderley with me."
"Do you mean you want a secretary or something?"
"No, I'm asking you to marry me, you little fool.
...the routine of life goes on, whatever happens, we do the same things, go through the little performance of eating, sleeping, washing. No crisis can break through the crust of habit.
I believe there is a theory that men and women emerge finer and stronger after suffering, and that to advance in this or any world we must endure ordeal by fire.
Time will mellow it, make it a moment for laughter. But now it was not funny, now I did not laugh. It was not the future, it was the present. It was too vivid and too real.
The moment of crisis had come, and I must face it. My old fears, my diffidence, my shyness, my hopeless sense of inferiority, must be conquered now and thrust aside. If I failed now I should fail forever.
I would have gone too but I wanted to come straight back to you.I kept thinking of you, waiting here, all by yourself, not knowing what was going to happen.
...but I should say that kindliness, and sincerity, and if I may say so--modesty--are worth far more to a man, to a husband, than all the wit and beauty in the world.
And this then, that I am feeling now, is the hell that comes with love, the hell and the damnation and the agony beyond all enduring, because after the beauty and the loveliness comes the sorrow and the pain.
... and through it all and afterwards they would be together, making their own world where nothing mattered but the things they could give to one another, the loveliness, the silence, and the peace.
How lacking in intuition men could be in persuading themselves that mending some stranger's socks, and attending to his comfort, could content a woman...
Daphne du Maurier
He stole horses' you'll say to yourself, 'and he didn't care for women; and but for my pride I'd have been with him now.
I thought of all those heroines of fiction who looked pretty when they cried, and what a contrast I must make with a blotched and swollen face, and red rims to my eyes.
I felt rather exhausted, and wondered, rather shocked at my callous thought, why old people were sometimes such a strain. Worse than young children or puppies because one had to be polite.
So you see, when war comes to one’s village, one’s doorstep, it isn’t tragic and impersonal any longer. It is just an excuse to vomit private hatred. That is why I am not a great patriot.
Looking from the window at the fantastic light and colour of my glittering fairy-world of fact that holds no tenderness, no quietude, I long suddenly for peace, for understanding.
…you guessed that somewhere, in heaven knew what country and what guise, there was someone who was part of your body and your brain, and that without him you were lost, a straw blown by the wind.
If there’s one thing that makes a man sick, it’s to have his ale poured out of an ugly hand.
Daphne du Maurier
How pleasant,' Dona said, peeling her fruit; 'the rest of us can only run away from time to time, and however much we pretend to be free, we know it is only for a little while - our hands and our feet are tied.
I would not be young again, if you offered me the world. But then I'm prejudiced.'
'You talk,' I said, 'as if you were ninety-nine.'
'For a woman I very nearly am,' she said. 'I'm thirty five.
It's funny,' I noted in the diary, 'how often I seem to build a story around one sentence, nearly always the last one, too. The themes are a bit depressing but I just can't get rid of that.
And, though there should be a world of difference between the smile of a man and the bared fangs of a wolf, with Joss Merlyn they were one and the same.
But the point is this Monsieur...the reason why Madame complains of you is not because of the immorality in itself; but because, so she tells me, you make immorality delicious.
And he went on eating his marmalade as though everything were natural.
Daphne du Maurier
She would have stood by Giles’s side, and shaken hands with people, a smile on her face. I could not do that. I had not the pride, I had not the guts. I was badly bred.
...I will shed no more tears, like a spoilt child. For whatever happens we have had what we have had. No one can take that from us. And I have been alive, who was never alive before.
The feel of her own pillow, and of her own blankets reassured her. Both were familiar. And being tired was familiar too, it was a solid bodily ache, like the tiredness after too much jumping or cricket.
Do you know so little about children, Monsieur Jean,' she asked, 'that you imagine, because they don't cry, therefore they feel nothing? If so, you're much mistaken.
Oh, God, I though, this is like two people in a play, in a moment the curtain will come down, we shall bow to the audience, and go off to our dressing-rooms.
