Quotes from Alice Hoffman

Read as many books as you can. Always choose courage

My grandmother told me once that when you lose somebody you think you've lost the whole world as well, but that's not the way things turn out in the end. Eventually, you pick yourself up and look out the window, and once you do you see everything that was there before the world ended is out there still. There are the same apple trees and the same songbirds, and over our heads, the very same sky that shines like heaven, so far above us we can never hope to reach such heights.

Another world must surely exist somewhere one where she would be known in some deep way that was far beyond words.

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.

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.

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

You are my armor and my sword, my faith and my treasure, everything I'm fighting for.

They may be nothing like you, he had written, they may surprise you, they may even repel you when their behavior is out of control, when they climb out their windows and drink underage and break every rule, but you will love them in a way you had not thought possible before, no matter who they turn out to be.

She doesn't have a mother anymore. There's no one to whom she's the most important person in the world.

What's done cannot be undone. What's set into motion takes on a life of its own.

Don't waste time when there's someone you love.

She knows where she's going, and what she has to do. She could, after all, find her way to Route 95 South blindfolded. She could do it in the dark, in fair weather or foul; she can do it even when it seems she will run out of gas. It doesn't matter what people tell you. It doesn't matter what they might say. Sometimes you have to leave home. Sometimes, running away means you're headed in the exact right direction.

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

Our house was littered with books- in the kitchen, under the beds, stuck between the couch pillows--far too many for her the ever finish. I suppose I thought if my grandmother kept up her interests, she wouldn't die; she'd have to stay around to finish the books she was so fond of. I've got to get to the bottom of this one, she'd say, as if a book were no different from a pond or a lake. I thought she'd go on reading forever but it didn't work out that way.

How wonderful to say whatever you wanted without having to go over it in your mind, again and again, to make certain it wouldn't set him off.

He fell in love with the way she closed her eyes, long before he fell in love with her.

They say the truest beauty is in the harshest land and that God can be found there by those with open eyes.

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

That was the sorrow of it. He saw the light but never expected the darkness.

Truth felt light and green, but a lie sunk to the floor, heavy as metal, a substance she always avoided for it made her feel as though she was trapped behind bars.

And then I understood that she had no idea what she'd done to my family. She thought love and hatred were equal.

You couldn't see love, or touch it, or taste it, yet it could destroy you and leave you in the dark, chasing after your own destiny.

I just stored up my hurts, as if they were a tower made of fallen stars, invisible to most people, but brightly burning inside of me.

I knew what happened in fairy tales. The strong survived while the weak were eaten alive.