"Goodness knows, I've tried and tried, but it's no use. I've given what I had to give. I gave it all to Lord Darlington."
I like this line of dialogue because it uses such simple language to convey an intense emotion. In that way it mimics real-life speech, minus all the things like false starts and plus some literary neatness. The repetition of some words also conveys such a sense of the character's despair/ realisation.
Spoiler! :
For additional context: this line is spoken as part of a larger chunk of dialogue, where the speaker, a butler named Stevens, is talking quite a bit more than a nameless passerby who just came to ask if he was okay, because he's an old man sitting crying on a bench.
Surround yourself with people who are serious about being writers, and who will tell you, ‘Hey—you can do better than this.’ Who will be critical of your work, but also supportive. And who will not be competitive in a negative way. — Isabel Quintero
Gender:
Points: 41664
Reviews: 542