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
“A Warrior of Light never resorts to trickery, but he knows how to distract his opponent.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from Warrior of the Light
“And what’s your eldest son doing this evening? Um…Conner,” I asked Jake. “Probably a threesome,” Amber muttered.”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from The Will
“Marie Caroline Jensen, will you marry me?” he asked suddenly, looking right into my eyes. I bit my lip, trying to decide how long to drag it out. Maybe a little longer…he’d used the “b” word, I should probably make him suffer. I looked away, refusing to meet his eyes as he stopped laughing and grew still.
“Marie?” he asked, his voice suddenly strained. “Oh fuck, don’t do this to me, please. I—”
“Yes,” I said, catching his eye and smirking. “I’ll marry your big, dumb ass but only because you said the magic word.”
“Fuck? You’re right, that is a magic word. Let’s test it out.”
― Joanna Wylde, quote from Reaper's Property
“Beguildy looked at me over the rim of a great measure of mead. 'Saddle your dreams afore you ride 'em, my wench,' he said.”
― Mary Webb, quote from Precious Bane
“Death is a mirror in which the entire meaning of life is reflected.”
― Sogyal Rinpoche, quote from The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying
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