It was as though she who had arranged this room had said: “This I will have, and this, and this,” taking piece by piece from the treasures in Manderley each object that pleased her best, ignoring the second-rate, the mediocre, laying her hand with sure and certain instinct only upon the best.

—DAPHNE DU MAURIER, Rebecca

Dying

Is an art, like everything else.

—SYLVIA PLATH, “LADY LAZARUS”