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

“Of all the things which make up our Short-Time lives, sleep is surely the best.”
― Stephen King, quote from Insomnia


“The atmosphere in the admin department also seemed very false. My suspicions were aroused when two employees spontaneously started singing the Panther Corporation song. I didn't even know there was a Panther Corporation song.”
― Sophie Kinsella, quote from Can You Keep a Secret?


“Have you ever had one of those days when something just seems to be trying to tell you somebody?”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from Preludes & Nocturnes


“You love him," he says. Not an asking, just a fact.
"I do," I say. Also a fact.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Ask and the Answer


“It had been like swallowing a gust of October wind.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Waste Lands


Interesting books

To Sir, With Love
(10.4K)
To Sir, With Love
by E.R. Braithwaite
Annabel Lee
(6.6K)
Annabel Lee
by Edgar Allan Poe
The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things
(23K)
The Earth, My Butt,...
by Carolyn Mackler
Simple Perfection
(38.2K)
Simple Perfection
by Abbi Glines
Corpalism
(278)
Corpalism
by Arun D. Ellis
After the End
(9.4K)
After the End
by Amy Plum

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.