Quotes from Alice Hoffman

Everything was hidden. I now understood it was our duty as human beings to see behind the veil to the inside of the world, to the heart of things.

A ship there is and she sails the sea, She's loaded deep as deep can be, But not so deep as the love I'm in I know not if I sink or swim. The water is wide, I cannot get o'er it And neither have I wings to fly Give me a boat that will carry two And both shall row, my Love and I.

time was like a river, and I was a fish in that river, moving so quickly that the world outside my household was blur.

There were sinister aspects of magic, and what you brought into this world was your responsibility, to deal with forevermore.

She has never told anyone, but she knew as soon as she saw him that she'd marry Ivan. It was less love at first sight than some deep knowledge that he was the man she would someday fall in love with.

The story became a cloud, and the cloud a sheet of rain, and rain fell throughout the empire.

If a ghost were to consider climbing in the window, or seeping through the plaster, he might think twice about facing Maria.

I do not know if he had a name, but I called him North, an appellation I think Beck would have approved of, for it was the name the Dutch called the Hudson River when they first came here, when men set to changing the world in their image, and gave all the wild things their own names.

if a person doesn't speak her mind she will carry her resentment until it burns her

There were other spells, not medicinal treatments, but spiritual, ancient enchantments that began with the Hebrew word Abracadabra, I create as I speak, taken from the even earlier Aramaic chant, Avra kadavra, It will be created in my words.

Fate is what you make of it. You can make the best of it, or you can let it make the best of you.

I think that people can surprise you in so many ways, both with cruelty and with kindness.

In such great works I found enlightenment and came to understand that everything God creates is a miracle, individually and unto itself.

What was life anyway? Only a continuous vale of sadness and tears.

Amulets for luck are made of blue beads, dove feathers, mistletoe, wishbones.

who I am to talk? I dream of rain.

Buddy had spent a great deal of time at the children's ward at the hospital over on the Turnpike. Every Saturday, during Ben's magic act, he was pulled out of a hat that was old and smelled of alfalfa and sweat. Buddy was used to bright lights and people crying, and he was always well behaved. He had never once bitten a child, not even when he'd been poked or teased. Now, he rose onto his back legs and balanced carefully, just as he'd been taught.

She understood love. What destroys you saves you, she had told me.

wouldn't it be more likely that time was the element a spirit would be attached to? That would mean a ghost is an entity that can't let go of what was and isn't anymore.

Is it the man you want, or the feeling inside you when someone cares?

never to rush something I was creating, but instead let it come into being as if it had a soul of it's own.

She was a great beauty, and in his experience that would bring her both good fortune and grief.

When you look into your own future, you may see only what you want to see, and even the wisest woman can make a mistake, especially in matters of love.

name was Tom Smith and he had performed so many marriages he could recite the service in his sleep. Sometimes he did and his wife would lie in bed and listen to him, the whole service through, comforted that someone could know the words of love by heart.