Quotes from Alice Hoffman

The doctor thought of his old horse in the field whom he missed more than he ever would have thought possible. He thought of Liza Hull kissing her baby good-bye, and of his grandson in his hospital bed, and of all the people he'd seen enter this world and those he'd helped leave it behind. He was a lucky man to be sitting beside Elinor in the garden in the last green days of May. He had loved her for so many years, he would just go on doing it, with or without her.

If you believed in something strongly and gave it enough credence, it could appear right in front of you. Though it had been created in your mind, it would claim a presence in the real world, a monster at your door, a demon pulling at your coat sleeve.

He knew that attachments were for the living, and so he did the honorable thing. He let her go. He leaned close so she would hear him say it was all right for her to leave him. They knew it was now; they could feel something shift the way it always did. Even Argus, who'd been whimpering, grew quiet. It was not a dream, but something more. She breathed out, and inside that one breath was every word that had been spoken, every step she had taken, everyone she had ever loved.

You could not have all that you wanted, but if you found love, you were fortunate.

IT WASN'T EASY TO walk away from the past, even when you locked it up in a box for which there was no key. Memories rattle around late at night, they claw at the latch, escaping when you least expect them to do so.

Eddie's edge of cynicism caused a smile to play at his lips. "You'd have to pay when you came before him." "I'm before him now," the liveryman said solemnly. "I've come to understand I'm before him each and every minute.

They sealed this promise by hooking pinkies, the way they used to, long ago, when promises didn't hurt as much.

and want can be a hundred times stronger than need, and a thousand times stronger than common sense. She

By the time spring had fully bloomed, he would be flying. He would never be far from the girl who had been born on a snowy day, whose father had come home from the sea so that he could tell her every story he knew, whose sister took her in her arms to read to her, whose mother would teach her all she needed to know.

In her opinion, everything goes wrong if you give it enough time.

You think terrible things can't happen because they've never happened to you, but they're out there, all the time, every day. They happen to someone.

There are sick people everywhere, in wheelchairs and on benches. Shelby is embarrassed to be so healthy.

Natalia refused to let go of her grandchildren. If anything, that was her philosophy. That was the reason she had slapped Claire's face. "Wake up!" she cried.

Franny was always going to be the one to break the curse. Here was her secret: she loved so deeply the depth could never be charted.

She heard her mother tell her that when you were loved by someone, you never lost them, no matter what might happen next. Despite the curse, despite the losses you might endure, she knew now that love was the only thing that lasted. It was inside you and with you for all eternity.

Sara had told me that a woman who could rescue herself was a woman who would never be in need.

SHE WENT TO see Madame Cohen the next day at her shop at the end of the Rue des Rosiers. Each had sorrows she never discussed with anyone else. Their camaraderie was unusual and rare. Friendships were usually based on trivial matters, played out over games of cards and cups of coffee, but theirs was rooted in sterner stuff, catastrophe and survival.

Maria was a weather witch and could stop rain by standing in a downpour with her arms uplifted.

Sometimes they would sit in the parlor together, both reading – in entirely separate worlds, to be sure, but joined somehow.

I saw this was the way of the future, to leave the past behind as if it were a dream.

She had been grief stricken as her father lay dying but now she felt weightless, the way people do when they're no longer sure they have a reason to be connected to this world.

To carry such vengeful thoughts was a heavy burden

Some of the guys he knew said the only people who didn't fear death were those who had nothing to lose and he thought they were probably right.

what you give up you can learn to live without, even if it causes you heartbreak at the start. Whether you are mortal or not, you go on, even if sorrow nags