Quote 1
Like many people with a bold fondness for volunteering personal information, anything that suggested a direct question, a pinning-down, put her on guard (3.23).
Holly's unwillingness to answer direct questions reflects her active move to isolate herself from other people. This way she's always in control.
Quote 2
Her cheek came to rest against my shoulder, a warm damp weight. "Why are you crying?" She sprang back, sat up. "Oh, for God's sake," she said, starting for the window and the fire escape, "I hate snoops" (3.58).
There's a brief moment when Holly lets down her guard and invites someone in, but as soon as the narrator presses her she goes back to isolating herself.
Quote 3
"We sort of just took up by the river one day, we don't belong to each other: he's an independent and, so am I" (4.52).
Holly won't even allow herself to form ties with a cat. She remains completely isolated from anything that could represent personal attachment.
Quote 4
"I told you. We just met by the river one day: that's all. Independents, both of us. We never made each other any promises. We never – " she said, and her voiced collapsed […] (18.14).
After Holly turns her cat loose, she tries to convince herself that she's happy being alone, but we see that this really isn't the case.
Quote 5
"[…] our understanding of each other had reached that sweet depth where two people communicate more often in silence than in words" (12.4).
This makes us believe that perhaps Holly and the narrator really do develop a true friendship. They reach a level of comfort that only true friends achieve.
Quote 6
"No, idiot. This is serious. Look at me. […] You might have been killed" (13.25-13.27).
After the horseback-riding fiasco, Holly displays real tenderness and concern for the narrator – she actually cares for him. And this is a touching moment between the two that shows us that Holly is indeed capable of friendship.
Quote 7
"It makes me furious, the way these wretched people keep persecuting him. He's a sensitive, a religious person. A darling old man" (14.2).
Even after Holly is arrested for associating with Sally Tomato, she refuses to believe that he's the horrible man the newspapers are making him out to be. Is she being naïve? Perhaps. But she might also just be displaying the loyalty she feels toward the people she believes are her friends.
Quote 8
"Well, I might be rotten to the core, Maude, but: testify against a friend I will not" (17.24).
So, Holly actually does think about someone other than herself. For her, friendship cannot exist without loyalty (even if we think her loyalty might be a little misguided in this case.
Quote 9
"I don't think anyone will miss me. I have no friends" (13.7).
Is this Holly feeling sorry for herself or is she just speaking the truth? Either way, she seems a bit saddened by this realization and we get to see a crack in her armor.
Quote 10
"But there's a horse, my darling old Mabel Minerva – I can't go without saying good-bye to Mabel Minerva" (13.2).
It's much easier for Holly to form attachments to animals than to people. This horse is her friend, a thing she loves and holds dear to her heart.
Quote 11
"If I do feel guilty, I guess it's because I let him go on dreaming when I wasn't dreaming a bit" (4.51).
This is Holly's take on why she didn't pursue her Hollywood career. It's not that she wasn't thinking about her future; she just knew that being in Hollywood wasn't her dream – it was O.J.'s dream for her.
Quote 12
"I don't want to own anything until I know I've found the place where me and things belong to each other. I'm not quite sure where that is just yet. But I know what it's like" (4.52).
This is Holly's big hope for her life – to find a place where she feels she belongs. She doesn't know where this place is, but she's confident it's out there and she knows how she'll feel when she finds it.
Quote 13
"He'll marry me, all right. In church. And with his family there" (13.11).
Holly has actually allowed herself to dream of a more secure life with José. She's finally looking forward to the future and she feels confident that her dreams will come true this time. She's supremely confident in the plans she has for her life.
Quote 14
"Years from now, years and years, one of those ships will bring me back, me and my nine Brazilian brats" (12.4).
In a rare moment, Holly pictures herself as an older woman with a family. She imagines that she and José will have a big family and that she'll spend the rest of her life in Brazil. She's looking beyond the immediate future here and is daring to plan for years and years to come.
Quote 15
"Today's Wednesday, isn't it? So I suppose I'll sleep until Saturday, really get a good schluffen. Saturday morning I'll skip out to the bank. Then I'll stop by the apartment and pick up a nightgown or two and my Mainbocher. Following which, I'll report to Idlewild. Where, as you damn well know, I have a perfectly fine reservation on a perfectly fine plane" (17.18).
It's so easy for Holly to slip back into her old habits. After José dashes her hopes of marriage and a family, Holly resorts to what's familiar to her – living life on the fly and living for the moment.
Quote 16
"Like my brother Fred. We used to sleep four in a bed, and he was the only one that ever let me hug him on a cold night" (3.7).
Memories of Fred represent happy recollections of Holly's past. In the midst of her difficult childhood, her brother was a source of safety and security.
Quote 17
"She's such a goddamn liar, maybe she don't know herself any more" (4.20).
Holly has spent so much time trying to leave behind Lulamae Barnes that it's possible she doesn't really know who she is – Holiday or Lulamae or anything else. This passage reveals Holly's deep desire to erase the past.
Quote 18
"Even though I kept telling him: But Doc, I'm not fourteen any more, and I'm not Lulamae. But the terrible part is (and I realized it while we were standing there) I am. I'm still stealing turkey eggs and running through a brier patch. Only now I call it having the mean reds" (11.5).
Despite her best efforts, Holly can't escape her past. A part of her will always be Lulamae Barnes from Texas.
Quote 19
"He's the only one would ever let me. Let me hug him on cold nights. I saw a place in Mexico. With horses. By the sea" (11.10).
When Holly's ties to the happy parts of her past disappear, it destroys her. Fred was her one constant link to a past she remembered fondly, and his death erases that for her in an instant.
Quote 20
"I'm very scared, Buster. Yes, at last. Because it could go on forever. Not knowing what's yours until you've thrown it away" (18.18).
Holly has spent her life avoiding anything permanent, but as she heads to the airport she finally admits that this impermanence scares her because she sees no end to it. The idea of transience stretches before her indefinitely.