Kate Betts > Quotes

“The best teachers impart knowledge through sleight of hand, like a magician.”
― Kate Betts, My Paris Dream: An Education in Style, Slang, and Seduction in the Great City on the Seine

“To express oneself fluently involves more than simply speaking the language properly. It includes inflection, voice, posture, gestures, and clothing. All of these elements add up to an individual’s personal expression. They are the elements of style.”
― Kate Betts

“My mother complained about the Parisians' habit of bumping into tourists on the narrow sidewalks. 'Am I bumping into them?' she asked, perplexed. 'I feel like such a clumsy American.' 'No, no,' I corrected. 'That's their way of saying hello.”
― Kate Betts

“Nothing is real that is not first imagined.”
― Kate Betts, My Paris Dream: An Education in Style, Slang, and Seduction in the Great City on the Seine

“I found the isolation of this expatriate life pathetic. Even after years of living in Paris, my godmother, Sandy, was no different. She would wave away my suggestions that she socialize with Parisians. “I don’t speak French!” she would say with a shrug. “They aren’t interested in anyone who doesn’t speak their language.”
― Kate Betts, My Paris Dream: An Education in Style, Slang, and Seduction in the Great City on the Seine

“Good Americans, when they die, go to Paris.” I jotted down all those Paris quotes from Appleton, Emerson, Hemingway, and Henry Miller”
― Kate Betts, My Paris Dream: An Education in Style, Slang, and Seduction in the Great City on the Seine

“knew she resented me, but I lacked the maturity and experience to see how resentment could fester and become vindictive.”
― Kate Betts, My Paris Dream: An Education in Style, Slang, and Seduction in the Great City on the Seine

“Yves St. Laurent understood better than anyone that style was not simply about appearance. Style was about gestures, experiences, and taste. Style was about context. Style told a story: It began with a time and a place.”
― Kate Betts, My Paris Dream: An Education in Style, Slang, and Seduction in the Great City on the Seine