Quotes By Author: Alice Hoffman
“Life is a mystery, and it should be so, for the sorrow that accompanies being human and the choices one will have to make are a burden, too heavy for most to know before their time comes.”
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“But in battle you cannot tell another when it is his time to enter the World-to-Come, nor is it possible to keep any man in this world when he wishes to leave it behind.”
“We are only an instant, that’s true. But we are eternal.”
“She knew it the way people say they know they are about to be hit by lightning, yet remain powerless to run, unable to avoid their fate. She panicked, as anyone might have when disparate parts of her life were about to crash into each other, certain to leave a path of anguish and debris. It was true that devotion could be lost as quickly as it was found, which was why some people insisted that love letters be written in ink. How easy it was for even the sweetest words to evaporate, only to be rewritten as impulse and infatuation might dictate. How unfortunate that love could not be taught or trained, like a seal or a dog. Instead it was a wolf on the prowl, with a mind of its own, and it made its own way, undeterred by the damage done. Love like this could turn honest people into liars and cheats, as it now did…”
“To want someone so much could be a terrible thing, or it could be the best hope a man could have”
“Love was never a mistake, even when it wasn’t returned.”
“Pride is a funny thing; it can make what is truly worthless appear to be a treasure.”
“It was a moment made of glass, this happiness; it was the easiest thing in the world to break. Every minute was a world, every hour a universe.”
“My mother was teaching me that the inside of something was not necessarily its outside. Always look carefully, she told me. Look with more than your eyes.”
“Still anyone who trusts a serpent deserves its bite. The wise see a creature for what it is, not what it says it may be.”
“But what we are given is taken as well, so that we know God’s glory comes to us from His will alone.”
“Unrequited love is so boring. Weeping under a blue-black sky is for suckers or maniacs.”
“If every life is a river, then it’s little wonder that we do not even notice the changes that occur until we are far out in the darkest sea. One day you look around and nothing is familiar, not even your own face. My name once meant daughter, grandaughter, friend, sister, beloved. Now those words mean only what their letters spell out; Star in the night sky. Truth in the darkness.I have crossed over to a place where I never thought I’d be. I am someone I would have never imagined. A secret. A dream. I am this, body and soul. Burn me. Drown me. Tell me lies. I will still be who I am.”
“…he had a way of taking your hand which made it clear he’d have to be the one to let go.”From Alice Hoffman’s “Local Girls”, pg.102.”