Carol Quotes

Quotes from Patricia Highsmith's Carol (previously titled The Price of Salt) with images from Todd Haynes' movie Carol (2015) starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara.

[ella-bug]

New art is done

[itsthebittersweetsymphony]

“I mean, if you’d like to visit me some time, you’re welcome to.”

‘Carol’ (2015) dir. Todd Haynes.

[carol-quotes]

Tomorrow she would see Carol, Therese thought, tomorrow morning at eleven. She would see her only ten blocks from here, in a little more than twelve hours.

(Chapter Five)

‘Carol’ (Patricia Highsmith) Images ‘Carol’ (2015) dir. Todd Haynes

[carol-quotes]

She saw Carol’s face, thinner now, alter with surprise, with a little smile, as Carol caught sight of her. ‘Hello’, Therese said. ‘I didn’t even know you at first.’ And Carol stood by the table a moment, looking at her, before she sat down. ‘It’s nice of you to see me.’ ‘Don’t say that.’

(Chapter Twenty-Three)

‘Carol’ (Patricia Highsmith) Images ‘Carol’ (2015) dir. Todd Haynes

[itsthebittersweetsymphony]

“I mean, if you’d like to visit me some time, you’re welcome to.”

‘Carol’ (2015) dir. Todd Haynes.

[carol-quotes]

Tomorrow she would see Carol, Therese thought, tomorrow morning at eleven. She would see her only ten blocks from here, in a little more than twelve hours.

(Chapter Five)

‘Carol’ (Patricia Highsmith) Images ‘Carol’ (2015) dir. Todd Haynes

[carol-quotes]

Carol - Patricia Highsmith

Cover Illustration by Jane Harris, 1991,  commissioned by Penguin Books.

If this cover reminds of a certain painting, take a look at Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks”:

[carol-quotes]

‘What a strange girl you are.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Flung out of space,’ Carol said.

(Chapter Four)

‘Carol’ (Patricia Highsmith) Images ‘Carol’ (2015) dir. Todd Haynes

[carol-quotes]

“…I’ll never regret… the years I’m giving…  They’re easy to give, when you’re in love… I’m happy to do whatever I do for you…” That was her song. That was everything she felt about Carol.

(Chapter Eleven)

‘Carol’ (Patricia Highsmith) Images ‘Carol’ (2015) dir. Todd Haynes

[carol-quotes]

Carol took her hand down from her face and sat back, and now in spite of the tiredness she looked as Therese always thought of her - the eyes that could be tender and hard at once as they tested her, the intelligent red lips strong and soft, though the upper lip trembled the least bit now.

(Chapter Nineteen)

‘Carol’ (Patricia Highsmith) Images ‘Carol’ (2015) dir. Todd Haynes

[carol-quotes]

The question was would I stop seeing you (and others like you, they said!). It was not so clearly put. There were a dozen faces that opened their mouths and spoke like the judges of doomsday - reminding me of my duties, my position, and my future. […] You say you love me however I am and when I curse. I say I love you always, the person you are and the person you will become. I would say it in a court if it would mean anything to those people or possibly change anything because those are not the words I am afraid of. 

(Chapter Twenty-One)

‘Carol’ (Patricia Highsmith) Images ‘Carol’ (2015) dir. Todd Haynes

[carol-quotes]

Carol stared at her cigarette lighter on the table. ‘That’s that’. ‘I love you’, Carol said.

(Chapter Twenty-One)

‘Carol’ (Patricia Highsmith) Images ‘Carol’ (2015) dir. Todd Haynes

[carol-quotes]

Therese waited. Then as she was about to go to her, Carol saw her, seemed to stare at her incredulously a moment while Therese watched the slow smile growing, before her arm lifted suddenly, her hand waved a quick, eager greeting that Therese had never seen before. Therese walked towards her. 

(Chapter Twenty-Three)

‘Carol’ (Patricia Highsmith) Images ‘Carol’ (2015) dir. Todd Haynes

[carol-quotes]

Carol raised her hand slowly and brushed her hair back, once on either side, and Therese smiled because the gesture was Carol, and it was Carol she loved and would always love. oh, in a different way now, because she was a different person, and it was like meeting Carol all over again, but it was still Carol and no one else. It would be Carol, in a thousand cities, a thousand houses, in foreign lands where they would go together, in heaven and in hell.

(Chapter Twenty-Three)

‘Carol’ (Patricia Highsmith) Images ‘Carol’ (2015) dir. Todd Haynes

[carol-quotes]

The headwaiter said something to her in the foyer, and she told him, ‘I’m looking for somebody,’ and she went on to the doorway. She stood in the doorway, looking over the people at the tables in the room where a piano played. The lights were not bright, and she did not see her at first, half hidden in the shadow against the far wall, facing her. Nor did Carol see her.

(Chapter Twenty-Three)

‘Carol’ (Patricia Highsmith) Images ‘Carol’ (2015) dir. Todd Haynes

[carol-quotes]

The air was cool and sweet on her forehead, made a feathery sound like wings past her ears, and she felt she flew across the streets and up the kerbs. Towards Carol. And pèerhaps Carol knew at this moment, because Carol had known such things before. She crossed another street, and there was the elysée awning.

(Chapter Twenty-Three)

‘Carol’ (Patricia Highsmith) Images ‘Carol’ (2015) dir. Todd Haynes

[carol-quotes]

Genevieve Cranell laughed. She wore a blue wollen suit that actually looked like a wild extravagance. ‘You look so young, I don’t suppose you’ll mind if I ask how old you are.’ ‘I’m twenty-one.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Incredible. Can anyone still be only twenty-one?’ Therese was flattered, terribly flattered, and the flattery got in the wat of what she felt, or might feel, about Genevieve Cranell. [...] And loneliness swept over her again like a rushing wind, mysterious as the thin tears that covered her eyes suddenly, too thin to be noticed, she knew, as she lifted her head and glanced at the doorway again.

(Chapter Twenty-Three)

‘Carol’ (Patricia Highsmith) Images ‘Carol’ (2015) dir. Todd Haynes