How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from Out of Africa.
Quote #1
KAREN: I've written about all the others, not because I loved them less, but because they were clearer, easier.
Denys was very mysterious and unattainable. Their relationship was strange and complicated, with an abrupt and tragic finality to it. It made for a good memoir, but Karen suggests here that she needed time and perspective to do it right.
Quote #2
BROR: It's not as though you loved him. You'd like to be a baroness, that's all.
Karen loved Bror's brother, and Bror was more her friend. This is a conversation held between close friends: direct and honest. Perhaps she loved him for his title as well, but it's pretty clear that they're getting married for reasons other than romance.
Quote #3
KAREN: Bror, listen to me. I've got no life at all. They wouldn't teach me anything useful. Now I've failed to marry. You know the punishment for that. "Miss Dinesen's at home." You've gone through all your money. You're off seducing the servant girls. We're a pair, you and I. I mean, at least we're friends. We might be all right. And if we weren't...at least we'd have been somewhere.
BROR: You don't think you're being too romantic? Am I supposed to think you're serious?
Karen views marriage as a contract. She needs certain things to get out of her repressive bourgeois life, and Bror is broke. They're up front about it, so there's supposed to be no surprises. (Supposed to be.)