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
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“She placed her hands at the sides of her enormous bosom and hiked it up. “Capito?” she said. “Make them bigger? They’re already up under my chin in this thing as it is!” “Si! Maggiore! Bigger!” Filomena said. Serafina tightened the bustier, then looked down at her cleavage. “It looks like I have two sea mounts stuck on the front of me. With an abyss between them,” she said. She peered at her reflection in the pool water. “All I can see is my chest!” “Buono! This is what soldati will see, too,” Filomena said. “Not the face.” She”
― Jennifer Donnelly, quote from Rogue Wave


“Heus, kuisheid is alleen iets voor de laagste klasse. [...] Ik ben nog nooit aan een hof geweest waar ze met de kuisheid erg nauw waren.”
― Arthur Japin, quote from In Lucia's Eyes


“Sorry, I can't help it."
"Oh, so your middle finger has a mind of its own then?" Alex asked with an amused look.
I glared at him and said, "Yeah, and she was just sticking up for me.”
― L.A. Casey, quote from Alec


“There are too many silly rules in our lives,” she said, “and our lives are far too short to pay attention to them.”
― Diane Chamberlain, quote from Necessary Lies


“]Sardis
often turning her thoughts here

]
you like a goddess
and in your song most of all she rejoiced.

But now she is conspicuous among Lydian women
as sometimes at sunset
the rosyfingered moon

surpasses all the stars. And her light
stretches over salt sea
equally and flowerdeep fields.

And the beautiful dew is poured out
and roses bloom and frail
chervil and flowering sweetclover.

But she goes back and forth remembering
gentle Atthis and in longing
she bites her tender mind”
― Sappho, quote from If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho


Interesting books

I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
(3.7K)
I Am That: Talks wit...
by Nisargadatta Maharaj
Perfect
(22.7K)
Perfect
by Ellen Hopkins
Kiss of the Highlander
(36K)
Kiss of the Highland...
by Karen Marie Moning
Two for the Dough
(132.4K)
Two for the Dough
by Janet Evanovich
A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy
(27.2K)
A Book of Five Rings...
by Miyamoto Musashi
Third Grave Dead Ahead
(33.5K)
Third Grave Dead Ahe...
by Darynda Jones

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.