Donald spoto Quotes - QuotesSweet | quotesweet.com

Author: Donald Spoto
Quotes of Author: Donald Spoto

Donald Spoto _ High Society: The Life of
She was determined to go places without leaning on anybody or using influence." Added Judith, "She left a prominent Philadelphia family to become a struggling actress in New York. It was an independent move. She had a certain amount of maverick in her, and she was entirely self-sufficient. She knew how to depend on herself." Grace was single-minded in her ambition to succeed as a professional actress. "I rebelled against my family and went to New York to find out who I was-and who I wasn't.
book-quote
Donald Spoto _ Joan: the Mysterious Life of
Va, et advienne que pourra. Go, and come what may.
book-quote
Donald Spoto _ Joan: the Mysterious Life of
About this time, Joan's parents made formal arrangements with a family who had an eligible son, to whom Joan was soon engaged. We know little of this episode in her life-neither the identity of the matrimonial match nor the precise date the ensuing fracas occurred. According to custom, the engagement did not require Joan's permission or approval; nor, it seems, was she introduced to her fiancé before the pact was settled. At the time, girls and young women took this procedure as a matter of course.
book-quote
Donald Spoto _ Joan: The Mysterious Life of
Joan's claim that God had France in HIs care because France was sacred to him may not be merely a medieval trope, embarrassingly old-fashioned language that today we must expunge from our vocabularies. To claim that France is sacred does not imply that only France is sacred. Throughout history, men and women have arisen everywhere who testify to the sacredness of nations. Perhaps today more than ever, we are aware that the identity and integrity of nations are supremely significant for the human race - that the facile invasion of a sovereign state and genocide are abbhorent. In this regard, the entire Jewish-Chrisian faith tradition is based on the belief that God once summoned ordinary people and through them worked extraordinary eeds for HIs own purpose, which is to bring all peoples to Himself. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and the prophets were but a few of thsoe called to establish and save the nation of Israel. But Israel was brought into existence and alter triumphed over its enimies not only for its own sake. This is made clear throughout the Hebrew scriptures: God saved the nation so that all nations might be emraced. Israel was to be "a light to the gentiles," as both Old and New Testaments reiterate. God chose the ISraelites not to dominate or control but rather to serve others. The Christian Scriptures make the point more specific: the gentiles are not excluded from God's embrace, for the light of ISrael shines on the gentiles and shows the way into that embrace. All the peoples of the world are to be brought into the capacious light of the knowledge of God's friendship.Nowhere is it implied that Israel, or any other nation, should cease to exist. Because no single person or roup represents what it means to be human, its the variety of people within a nation that gives it an irreplaceable character - its national personality. As with individuals, so with nations: it is the diversity of peoples that furthers the process of the world. Although many nations have tried, none may set itself up as the only or the predominant nation, forcing its culture, ideology, religion or political agenda on any other nation. For Joan of Arc, this was precisely what England was trying to do through its nobels, armies and war machinery. France deserved its identity and, as a symbol of its people, the king.
book-quote
Donald Spoto _ Joan: The Mysterious Life of
However we assess the relief of the siege of Orleans and the subsequent successes in the Loire Valley, the military proficiency of the French shocked the English to the point that French victory now seemed almost inevitable. If the English had learned that the French had new materiel or a brilliant new commander, they might have been able to devise counter procedures. But they had underestimated everything, from the loyalty evoked by Joan's leadership at Orleans to the fresh resolve of the men who knew her. In a way she also stood for something like a principle of minimal violence, for although she was always exposed to injury and indeed sustained serious wounds, she never personally harmed an enemy solider. The events of the late spring and early summer of 1929 engendered a new collective spirit among the French.
book-quote
Donald Spoto _ Joan: The Mysterious Life of
What Joan impressed on the men by her faith and her actions, then, had more to do with the things of God that the machinery of war or prevailing politics. For her the struggle against English occupation and the eventual permanent establishment of French sovereignty were matters of justice, and justice was regarded as a major virtue in the Middle Ages. From justice came the origins of chivalry, which was about much more than mere courtesy: it concerned the order of a sovereign society and its place in the economy of God's plan for the world.
book-quote
Donald Spoto _ Joan: The Mysterious Life of
And what of Joan's presence among so many young, armed men? Perhaps of all the nobles and military men, the Duke of Alencon - that dedicated, courageous and skillful commander - may be trusted most. Although he was a man who had a keen eye for attractive and available women, he too recognized a rare quality of sincere devotion that deflected any tendency to make sexual overtures. 'Sometimes I lay down to sleep with Joan and the soldiers,' Alencon recalled. 'We were all in the straw together, and sometimes I saw Joan prepare for the night. Sometimes too I looked at her breasts, which were beautiful. And yet I never had any carnal desire for her."
book-quote
Donald Spoto _ High Society: The Life of
The gravity of Kennedy's condition was not detailed in the daily press, but the news traveled in New York society. When Kennedy's condition improved slightly, Grace sent a note to Jackie, asking if she could visit the hospital. Mrs. Kennedy thought this was a marvelous idea, and she invited Grace to arrive wearing a nurse's uniform, for Jack had complained that all the nurses were homely old crones. Grace arrived to find a platoon of bustling attendants hovering over a bone-thin, frail and ashen patient; he was thirty-seven, but he looked much older-nothing like the picture of glowing energy normally presented by the media.
book-quote
Donald Spoto _ High Society: The Life of
In the climactic moments of that spiritual testament to Hitch's own soul, Scottie {James Stewart} confronts Judy {Kim Novak} about her exploitative lover, who turned her into the replica of another woman: "He made you over, didn't he? He made you over just like I made you over-only better. Not only the clothes and the hair, but the looks and the manner and the words. Did he train you? Did he rehearse you? Did he tell you exactly what to do and what to say? You were a very apt pupil!
book-quote
Donald Spoto _ High Society: The Life of
I put it to him bluntly: 'Look here, Oleg-you're a charming escort, but in my opinion you are a very poor risk for a marriage.'" And then Margaret Kelly said something that might have turned Grace's resentment into loud laughter: "Of course I never interfere, even when I do not approve.
book-quote
Donald Spoto _ High Society: The Life of
But she never distanced herself from others, and she was enormously friendly to everyone-no stuffy attitude, no star complex. As for her talents, Grace acted the way Johnny Weissmuller swam or Fred Astaire danced-she made it look easy. And she probably went through life being completely misunderstood, since she usually said exactly what she meant.
book-quote
Donald Spoto _ High Society: The Life of
Decades later, we do not watch her as a movie star playing at or around a role, nor are we conscious of her gestures, her slight raising of the eyebrows, the sudden drop of her voice. We do not observe an "artiste" struggling to impress. Grace Kelly, the beautiful actress, disappears when we watch Georgie Elgin in The Country Girl; we see only the real weariness of a woman almost out of strength, almost empty of feeling-except that her feeling, and ours, is indeed too deep for tears.
book-quote