Alice Hoffman Quotes - Page 6

Before she realized he was next to her, he had placed his hands over hers on the countertop, then hooped his fingers through hers. Gretel looked up at him, so startled she might as well have been shot. 'I just wanted to wake you up', he said. Which is exactly what he did. One look at him and her heart was racing. One look, and whatever had been before was all over.

Maybe some love was guaranteed. Maybe it fit inside you and around you like skin and bones.

The evening had turned sweet and blue.

Sometimes words drew blood, they cut your tongue, they made you know things you couldn't unknow.

You cannot dispute the ridiculous. You cannot argue reasonably with evil.

He was in love, and people in that condition did stupid, unfathomable things. They were all flawed, every single one.

I didn’t want to be prideful anymore. I wanted to be as hard as and brittle as the stones I carted into the woods. Stones that could not feel or cry or see. I wished not to feel anything at all. In no time, what I wished for, I became.

Crying wasn't like riding a bike. Give it up, and you quickly forget how it's done.

Everything we knew condemned us, and our questioning condemned us most of all. Knowledge was the way of our people, and knowledge was dangerous. It was the first thing that freed you and the thing that put you in peril. It was the key to the ten gates. I saw them clearly now, each and every one, the gates that were there for me. Ashes, Bones, Grass, Heart, Stone, Love, Sorrow, Blood, Earth, Sky.

My grief was cold. It was nothing to share. It was nothing to speak about, nothing to feel.

Are people drawn to each other because of the stories they carry inside? At the library I couldn’t help but notice which patrons checked out the same books. They appeared to have nothing in common, but who could tell what a person was truly made of? The unknown, the riddle, the deepest truth. I noticed them all: the ones who’d lost their way, the ones who’d lived their lives in ashes, the ones who had to prove themselves, the ones who, like me, had lost the ability to feel.

I could hardly get a boy to look at me. All right, they'd look, they'd even take me out, but no one asked for a second date. I was too nasty, a real wise guy, and all the boys could tell what my rotten disposition was. Deep down, I wanted a commitment with a capital C. To get anywhere with me, a boy would have to sign his undying loyalty with his own blood.

Being human means losing everything we love best in the world," she murmured as she released me. "But would you ask to be anything else?

Ironically, now that my children are older and gone quite a bit, I find it harder to work when they're not around. Too much free time!

We stood and watched as God abandoned us, and then we did the best we could.

The sisters were glad to be together. They had the easy sort of relationship where they didn't have to speak to be understood.

Margaret thought of all she knew for certain, that day would always follow night that love was never wasted nor was it lost.

What people read revealed so much about them that she considered our card catalog a treasure house of privileged secrets; each card contained the map of an individual’s soul.

How could I have been so stupid to ignore everything I’d had in my life? The color red alone was worth kingdoms.

I heard a sigh, as though the books were breathing. I felt that this was where I belonged. This was where I lived.

It was as though I had one map inside my head and it led to the man who was waiting for me. Someone who was alone - maybe even more alone - than I was.

We are only an instant, that's true. But we are eternal.

Always keep mint on your windowsill in August, to ensure that buzzing flies will stay outside, where they belong. Don't think the summer is over, even when roses droop and turn brown and the stars shift position in the sky. Never presume August is a safe or reliable time of the year.

Love was like rain: it turned into ice, or it disappeared. Now you saw it, now you couldn't find it no matter how hard you might search. Love evaporated; obsession was realer; it hurt, like a pin in your bottom, a stone in your shoe. It didn't go away in the blink of an eye. A morning phone call filled with regret. A letter that said, Dear you, good-bye from me. Obsession tasted like something familiar. Something you'd known your whole life. It settled and lurked; it stayed with you.

I wonder how a lioness will manage in a dovecote. Can you put away your teeth and claws?