Jean Rhys
@msjeanrhys.bsky.social
Daily quotes from the author of Wide Sargasso Sea, Good Morning, Midnight etc. "If I could choose, I would rather be happy than write." Dead since 1979.
I can't say at all what I mean - the gift of expression seems to have left me, so you must guess.
January 28, 2026 at 9:01 AM
I can't say at all what I mean - the gift of expression seems to have left me, so you must guess.
Do not be sad. Or think Adieu. Never Adieu. We will watch the sun set again - many times.
January 27, 2026 at 12:32 PM
Do not be sad. Or think Adieu. Never Adieu. We will watch the sun set again - many times.
She had hennaed her hair. It was cut short with a thick fringe. It suited her. But she had too much blue on her eyelids. Too much ‘Overture and Beginners’, I thought.
January 20, 2026 at 12:14 PM
She had hennaed her hair. It was cut short with a thick fringe. It suited her. But she had too much blue on her eyelids. Too much ‘Overture and Beginners’, I thought.
It is at night that you know old fears, old hopes, that you know unhappiness, turning from side to side under the mosquito-net, like a prisoner in a cell full of small peepholes.
January 16, 2026 at 5:56 PM
It is at night that you know old fears, old hopes, that you know unhappiness, turning from side to side under the mosquito-net, like a prisoner in a cell full of small peepholes.
You'd pine to death if you hadn't someone to look down on and insult.
January 13, 2026 at 9:21 AM
You'd pine to death if you hadn't someone to look down on and insult.
I've had enough of these streets that sweat a cold, yellow slime, of hostile people, of crying myself to sleep every night.
January 12, 2026 at 6:13 PM
I've had enough of these streets that sweat a cold, yellow slime, of hostile people, of crying myself to sleep every night.
I'm trying to do an autobiography now and it's very difficult to remember when I was a child in the West Indies. I did go back once. For a very short time. But all my nuns had gone.
January 6, 2026 at 6:15 PM
I'm trying to do an autobiography now and it's very difficult to remember when I was a child in the West Indies. I did go back once. For a very short time. But all my nuns had gone.
If you sometimes long for a fierce dog to guard your cave, that's only on bad days. Perhaps tomorrow will be a good day.
January 4, 2026 at 8:40 PM
If you sometimes long for a fierce dog to guard your cave, that's only on bad days. Perhaps tomorrow will be a good day.
Soon does one learn the bitter lesson that humanity is never content just to differ from you and let it go at that. Never.
January 2, 2026 at 5:44 PM
Soon does one learn the bitter lesson that humanity is never content just to differ from you and let it go at that. Never.
She knew the pain was going to start again. And, sure enough, it did.
January 1, 2026 at 1:44 PM
She knew the pain was going to start again. And, sure enough, it did.
I wait for the evening and the wine and that's all.
December 31, 2025 at 9:14 AM
I wait for the evening and the wine and that's all.
I know I don't succeed, but look how hard I try.
December 30, 2025 at 8:22 AM
I know I don't succeed, but look how hard I try.
I'll not be surprised if the BBC turns down Good Morning, Midnight, for I've had many brickbats hurled at it. I was fairly young then and self confident and imagined I could stand any number of brickbats.
December 28, 2025 at 6:28 AM
I'll not be surprised if the BBC turns down Good Morning, Midnight, for I've had many brickbats hurled at it. I was fairly young then and self confident and imagined I could stand any number of brickbats.
If you were anything else but a tired-out coward, you’d swim out into the blue and never come back.
December 27, 2025 at 6:31 AM
If you were anything else but a tired-out coward, you’d swim out into the blue and never come back.
I bought some Penguins at Christmas. One J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye". It made me laugh a lot. I liked it.
December 26, 2025 at 10:39 AM
I bought some Penguins at Christmas. One J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye". It made me laugh a lot. I liked it.
The haughty dame is me, a bit ghostly in the sun, but wishing you a lovely time for Christmas and a happy lucky New Year.
December 25, 2025 at 1:31 PM
The haughty dame is me, a bit ghostly in the sun, but wishing you a lovely time for Christmas and a happy lucky New Year.
How few people understood what a tightrope she walked or what would happen if she slipped. The abyss. Despair. All those things.
December 21, 2025 at 12:42 PM
How few people understood what a tightrope she walked or what would happen if she slipped. The abyss. Despair. All those things.
I don't matter. I never did, much. I don't now. I don't matter, and I want out. You put a lot of ice in this.
December 20, 2025 at 5:33 PM
I don't matter. I never did, much. I don't now. I don't matter, and I want out. You put a lot of ice in this.
If there's one hypocrisy I loathe more than another, it's the fiction of the 'good' woman and the 'bad' one.
December 19, 2025 at 9:57 AM
If there's one hypocrisy I loathe more than another, it's the fiction of the 'good' woman and the 'bad' one.
Animals are better than we are, aren't they? They're not all the time pretending and lying and sneering, like loathsome human beings.
December 18, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Animals are better than we are, aren't they? They're not all the time pretending and lying and sneering, like loathsome human beings.
Because I have been accused of madness. But if everything is in me, good, evil and so on, so must strength be in me if I know how to get at it.
December 15, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Because I have been accused of madness. But if everything is in me, good, evil and so on, so must strength be in me if I know how to get at it.
Today I must be very careful, today I have left my armour at home.
December 14, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Today I must be very careful, today I have left my armour at home.
I don't trouble about money, but what with wine and shillings for the slot-meters, it go quickly; so I don't waste much on food.
December 13, 2025 at 7:46 AM
I don't trouble about money, but what with wine and shillings for the slot-meters, it go quickly; so I don't waste much on food.
Every day is a new day. Every day you are a new person.
December 12, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Every day is a new day. Every day you are a new person.
I really cannot bear the thought of another winter in this horrible place. It will kill me, and I'd prefer to die somewhere else.
December 11, 2025 at 9:22 AM
I really cannot bear the thought of another winter in this horrible place. It will kill me, and I'd prefer to die somewhere else.