Quotes from Alice Hoffman

We were no different from the doves above us. We could not speak or cry, but when there was no choice, we discovered we could fly. If you want a reason, take this: We yearned for our portion of the sky (p.397).

Until then her only kisses had taken place in a closet during parties at Helene's house. The orderly took her into a closet as well, a utility closet where there were mops and buckets and folded sheets and towels. She wasn't speaking then. She tried to tell him no, but the word sounded like a sob.

Fall in love whenever you can.

You cannot bring back those who have stepped into the next world, and should you try, they would not be the same beings that had once been, but rather they would become unnatural creatures, created by dark magic and desire.

That was how evil spoke. It made its own corrupt sense; it swore that the good were evil, and that evil had come to save mankind. It brought up ancient fears and scattered them on the street like pearls. To fight what was wicked, magic and faith were needed. This was what one must turn to when there was no other option.

She never told anyone what he did to her on a nightly basis because she was afraid of him, but also because she was worth nothing to herself.

Rebecca had been young when she met her husband-to-be, at an age when she saw only what the outside of a man revealed. She was inexperienced enough to assume what they had was love because she wanted him, and want can be a hundred times stronger than need, and a thousand times stronger than common sense.

She had fallen under water, under a spell, in love with love.

One of the cruelest children had glued a nametag to the mouse's back. Sali had been scrawled in crude letters, but Sally took not the slightest pleasure in the misspelling of her name. She had cried over the little curled-up body, with its tiny whiskers and perfect paws, but when her teacher had asked what was wrong, she'd only shrugged, as though she had lost the power of speech.

I'm really happy that you're here." This is not an outright lie. No one knows you like a person with whom you've shared a childhood. No one will ever understand you in quite the same way.

We had been together as animals were, desperate and driven by a fierce need

She only went out that night because Helene threw a fit and called her a baby and she finally gave in and said she would drive. It sounds like a corny, lame excuse; it feels like a lie, even to herself. All the same, it's true. By now, Shelby is so confused, all she can remember is stepping on the brake after the car hit a patch of ice and spinning around and Helene laughing, like they were in a Tilt-A-Whirl car, and then the crunch of metal against metal.

Eddie's purpose was exactly what it had been when he was a boy, to pursue the light and find what was lost.

She knows now that when you don't lose yourself in the bargain, you find you have double the love you started with, and that's one recipe that can't be tampered with.

It's no good to need someone more than you want them.

griffon vultures, the strong, fearless creatures we called nesher that

Sometimes walking away is the bravest thing you can do. When you get there, you'll know where you are.

I had always done as he asked, not because I was bound to do so by duty but because I saw the depth of who he was and how he himself suffered.

Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack in everything That's how the light gets in. —"ANTHEM" BY LEONARD COHEN

Sue isn't the only one to be overwhelmed and brought to tears. Lots of people are doing it, just standing there crying. They're letting it all out, their sorrow, their desperation, their hope, right there, right now, in the presence of Helene's shrine, for that is what the house has become.

Envy is envy, both for the wind and for men on earth. The better the place, the more others covet what you have. Be a pauper, a wanderer, a secret in the darkness of night. Once you possess something others do not, you are a target for the wicked.

This is how he'll hurt you, this is the way you will blame yourself, this is your salvation, this is what you can see if you open your eyes.

Evan's head was filled with the sound of water. He thought of the ghost in the grass, her blue dress and bare feet. He thought of the way the doves had flown up into the sky all in a rush, startled by gunfire, and then all he could think was that despite everything that happened, he was alive.

It was possible, Richard knew, to be away from home too long, to forget all the things you once knew by heart. He didn't want just his father, he wanted the boy he used to be, someone who could be comforted by the sound of his parents talking in the next room, someone who refused to come into the house for supper until after dusk because that was the hour when deer mysteriously appeared in the driveway.