A strong sense of identity gives man an idea he can do no wrong; too little accomplishes the same.
Djuna Barnes

After all, it is not where one washes one's neck that counts but where one moistens one's throat.
Djuna Barnes

An image is a stop the mind makes between uncertainties.
Djuna Barnes

Dreams have only the pigmentation of fact.
Djuna Barnes

Life is painful, nasty and short... in my case it has only been painful and nasty.
Djuna Barnes

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

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.
Djuna Barnes

The night is a skin pulled over the head of day that the day may be in torment.
Djuna Barnes

The priceless galaxy of misinformation called the mind.
Djuna Barnes

This head has risen above its hair in a moment of abandon known only to men who have drawn their feet out of their boots to walk awhile in the corridors of the mind.
Djuna Barnes


Time is a great conference planning our end, and youth is only the past putting a leg forward.
Djuna Barnes

To love without criticism is to be betrayed.
Djuna Barnes

We are adhering to life now with our last muscle - the heart.
Djuna Barnes

We are beginning to wonder whether a servant girl hasn't the best of it after all. She knows how the salad tastes without the dressing, and she knows how life's lived before it gets to the parlor door.
Djuna Barnes

Well, isn't Bohemia a place where everyone is as good as everyone else - and must not a waiter be a little less than a waiter to be a good Bohemian?
Djuna Barnes

What is a ruin but time easing itself of endurance?
Djuna Barnes