Quotes from The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72

Molly Peacock ·  416 pages

Rating: (865 votes)


“Is being burnt a requisite for the making of art? Personally, I don't think it is. But art is poultice for a burn. It is a privilege to have, somewhere within you, a capacity for making something speak from your own seared experience.”
― Molly Peacock, quote from The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72


“But if a role model in her seventies isn't layered with contradictions - as we all come to be - then what good is she? Why bother to cut the silhouette of another's existence and place it against our own if it isn't as incongruous, ambiguous, inconsistent, and paradoxical as our own lives are?”
― Molly Peacock, quote from The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72


“The secret of marriage is thinking that your partner is better than yourself.”
― Molly Peacock, quote from The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72


“Having a collection, taking it out, looking at it, reordering it, and putting it away is creative in itself. It doesn't yield a product, like the results of an art, but is stops time, as making art does.”
― Molly Peacock, quote from The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72


“Robert Phelps, a biographer of Colette, said about watching, 'Along with love and work, this is the third great salvation. For whenever someone is seriously watching, a form of lost innocence is restored. It will not last, but during those minutes his self-consciousness is relieved.' Noticing keeps you alive.”
― Molly Peacock, quote from The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72



About the author

Molly Peacock
Born place: in Buffalo, New York, The United States
Born date June 30, 2018
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