“You should never let your picture be in a magazine or newspaper, if you can help it, as you never know what ends your face may be made to serve by others, once it has got out of your control.”

“If the world treats you well sir, you come to believe you are deserving of it.”

“If we were all on trial for our thoughts, we would all be hanged.”

“When people are afraid, they often behave with cruelty.”

“Gone mad is what they say, and sometimes Run mad, as if mad is a different direction, like west; as if mad is a different house you could step into, or a separate country entirely. But when you go mad you don’t go any other place, you stay where you are. And somebody else comes in.”

“When there’s a doctor it’s always a bad sign. Even when they are not doing the killing themselves, it means a death is close, and in that way they are like ravens or crows.”

“Women are as roses, whose fair flower, being once displayed, doth fall that very hour.”

“The difference between ignorant and stupid is that ignorant can learn.”

“She has a wild rolling to the eye and a twitchy manner. Those two things together always mean warm work behind closed doors.”

“What is believed in society is not always the equivalent of what is true; but as regards a woman’s reputation, it amounts to the same thing.”

“I’ve already been judged, sir. Whatever you may think of me, it’s all the same.”

“She wore a pale dress with pink rosebuds and a triple-flounced skirt, and a straw bonnet that hid her face.”

“I have my hands folded in my lap the proper way though I have no gloves. The gloves I would wish to have would be smooth and white, and would fit without a wrinkle.”

“Murderess. It rustles like a taffeta skirt across the floor.”

“They are entering the forest of amnesia, where things have lost their names.”

“I’ve already been judged, sir. Whatever you may think of me, it’s all the same.” — Grace Marks, Alias Grace