Quotes from Adriana Trigiani

I come from hardworking, determined people on both sides of my family... the kind who live with a hard reality from which much strength comes.

That's when you know for sure somebody loves you. They figure out what you need and they give it to you -- without you asking.

You never know when some small thing will lead to a big idea. Travel is very inspirational - but it's in the ordinary that I find my themes of love and work and family.

That's when you know for sure somebody loves you. They figure out what you need and they give it to you -- without you asking.

I even love the smell of books.

I like it when my mother smiles. And I especially like it when I make her smile.

But what Mom never told me is that along the way, you find sisters, and they find you. Girls are cool that way.

We hang out, we help one another, we tell one another our worst fears and biggest secrets, and then just like real sisters, we listen and don't judge.

When a girl is beautiful, she gets to pick - she never has to wait for someone to choose her.

A good mother is irreplaceable.

When you lose someone, they take a bigger place in your heart, not a smaller one. Every day it grows, because you don't stop loving them. You wish you could talk to them. You need their advice. But life doesn't always give us what we need, and it's difficult.

I don't settle in any other area of my life when it comes to excellence, so why should I lower my standards when it comes to boys?

Whever I came into the room, she'd light up, so happy to see me. No one ever in the course of my entire life was ever as happy to see me as she was. Looking back, now, I realize that you only ever need one person who lights up that way when you enter a room. One person is all it takes to give a kid confidence.

Isn't this the truth of any good mother? That in all of our lives. We worry only about those we brought into this world, regardless of whether they loved us back or treated us fairly or understood our shortcomings.

Beware the things of this world that can mean everything or nothing.

All the things I thought I was - simple and plain and sometime funny - are very small words. They do not begin to describe me. They do not begin to express what is inside of me. I have value, and I have worth. I cannot be replaced like old shoes or taken for granted like tap water.

This should tell you everything you need to know about guys. They only go after what they know they can get. We girls, on the other hand, aim really high. We take a leap...

Moments are history. If you have enough of them, they become a story.

its not so much about the shoes, but the person wearing them

No one worries about you like your mother, and when she is gone, the world seems unsafe, things that happen unwieldy. You cannot turn to her anymore, and it changes your life forever. There is no one on earth who knew you from the day you were born; who knew why you cried, or when you'd had enough food; who knew exactly what to say when you were hurting; and who encouraged you to grow a good heart. When that layer goes, whatever is left of your childhood goes with her.

Life, Enza decided, is not about what you get, but what is taken from you. It's in the things we lose that we discover what we most treasure.

People have often told me that one of their strongest childhood memories is the scent of their grandmother's house. I never knew my grandmothers, but I could always count of the Bookmobile.

Relief is a wonderful emotion, highly underrated. In fact, I prefer it to elation or joy. Relief lets the air out of the Tire of Pain.

A practical girl never pines; she takes action.