Mildred Pierce

If you have to do it, you can do it.

A home is not a museum. It doesn't have to be furnished with Picasso paintings, or Sheraton suites, or Oriental rugs, or Chinese pottery. But it does have to be furnished with things that mean something to you.

She was a little given to rehearsing things in her mind, and having imaginary triumphs over people who had upset her in one way and another.

A receptionist is a lazy dame that can’t do anything on earth, and wants to sit out front where everybody can watch her do it.

By nine, Mildred was powdered, puffed, perfumed, and patted to that state of semi-transparency that a woman seems to achieve when she is really dressed to go out.

He was enthusiastic about everything, but when she came in with the pie he grew positively lyrical.

The hand that holds the money cracks the whip.