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
“All the effort went into getting there and then I had nothing left. I thought I'd got somewhere, then I found I had to go on.”
― Alan Bennett, quote from The History Boys
“You remind me of a boy I used to know
Same Smile, same easy, laid-back style
And man, could he kiss
Blew my mind the very first time
His lips touched mine.
You remind me
You remind me of a boy I used to like.
Same eyes, strong arms, same open mind
And man, could he dance
Arms around me, lost in a trance
I'd hear his heart
You remind me
I'm scared of you
How did you find me?
Turn and walk away
'Cause you remind me
You remind me of a boy I used to love
Same laughter and tears, shared through the years
And man, how he felt
Made my bones more than melt
He touched my soul.
You remind me
I'm scared of you
How did you find me?
Turn and walk away
'Cause you remind me”
― Malorie Blackman, quote from Checkmate
“One can always find hands for a work of destruction.”
― André Gide, quote from The Counterfeiters
“The light in the darkness, as Stephen explained it, did not chase away the shadows of fear and regret: It merely illuminated the fears worth fighting. It lit the paths dictated by fate and choice, rather than casting a celestial glow on the way to a better and more perfect world. Although”
― Christopher Rice, quote from A Density of Souls
“I've found that it's easier to be pleasant when there's less need to be so.”
― Suzanne Enoch, quote from England's Perfect Hero
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