Quotes from Alice Hoffman

You will be amazed to find how easy it is to lie, even to those you love best.

The imperfect were often angry

Time goes faster than you think.

The priests were deferential, siding with Rome, and those who opposed them were said to be robbers and thugs, my father and his friends among

The sea was a dangerous enemy, and we were surrounded by it. But I remembered what my father had told me. You could grow to love something so strong and elemental, but you'd have to value the beauty of it more than you did your own life.

That's how we got our dog, Revolver. We thought he was crazy about us, but it turns out that Labrador retrievers adore everyone. Well, maybe that's what love is, a state of mind ready to grace anyone willing to accept it. Anyone who cares.

The worst thing in the world is a wish that comes true.

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

She thought I was impossible, but she loved me anyway, which is the best sort of love there is.

Writing itself was a magical act in which imagination altered reality and gave form to power. To this end, the book was the most powerful element of all.

In that instant he saw everything there was to know about love. It terrified and humbled him and made him realize how little he knew.

But the logic of fairy tales was that there was no logic: bad things happened to the innocent, children were set out in the woods by their parents, fear walked hand in hand with experience, a wish spoken aloud could make it so.

in the garden where the lilacs were so tall it was impossible to see the road. The leaves were dusty, the way they always were in August when the weather turned hot.

Snow made him feel like crying sometimes-just the first flakes, the purest stuff.

Just like you still think you'll be happier if you run away.

That was history, in his opinion: that sorrow was unalterable and ever present. That tears could be preserved in the hardest granite.

With silver and a wagon to take you to Boston or New York. I can keep the girl.

As the summer passed, I began to feel free. I had time to myself, and I enjoyed watching over the children. I felt a sort of joy I'd never felt before. I was so unaccustomed to such emotions it took some time before I realized I was happy.

History is personal

Kill something, and it's yours forever.

It was November, that quiet, gray time of the year when you feel like holding someone's hand. Gretel had her own hands clasped together, like a corpse.

was a spectacular and lonely landscape that I wished my father could see. I wished he could take off his shoes and climb over the rocks and wave to me and that he would be here in this world once again, if only for a few hours.

There are those who insist that mothers are born with love for their children and place them before all other things, including their own needs and desires.

He told me he wanted the chance to be in love again. He has no idea that being in love is bullshit. It's knowing someone down to their soul that matters. That's what love is. It's difficult and it's real and it doesn't change.