Quotes from The Red Garden

“She liked to disappear, even when she was in the same room as other people. It was a talent, as it was a curse.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Red Garden

“They say that dogs may dream, and when Topsy was old, his feet would move in his sleep. With his eyes closed he would often make a noise that sounded quite human, as if greeting someone in his dreams. At first it seemed that he believed Sara would return, but as the years went by I understood that his loyalty asked for no reward, and that love comes in unexpected forms. His wish was small, as hers had been -- merely to be beside her. As for me, I already knew I would never get what I wanted.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Red Garden

“She slept beneath a tree that night, sitting upright. She imagined she would have been scared for her life out in the open, for she was often terrified in her own room at home, even after double-locking the windows and covering the glass with quilts. Instead, she felt an odd calm spirit here in the wilderness. Was this the way people felt at the instant they leapt into rivers and streams? Was it like this when you fell in love, stood on the train tracks, went to a country where no one spoke your language? That was the country she was in most of the time, a place where people heard what she said but not what she meant. She wanted to be known, but no one knew her.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Red Garden

“The sisters were glad to be together. They had the easy sort of relationship where they didn't have to speak to be understood.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Red Garden

“...make you want things you hadn't even known existed.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Red Garden

“The only way to fight evil is with joy,”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Red Garden

“Who but a fool would stay in one place and butt her head against the same window time and again?”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Red Garden

“She said she wanted a man like that, someone who understood sorrow, not someone who caused it.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Red Garden

“a woman who could rescue herself was a woman who would never be in need.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Red Garden

“Let her wake as when she close her eyes. That was all Jenny asked for. That was all she begged for on this March night that was perfectly equal to the day, unique in all the season. Let her be the same sweet girl, unburdened by gifts or sorrow.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Red Garden

“She kissed him first, and all the rest followed.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Red Garden

“She wondered if dreamers knew they were in a dream while it was happening, or if they had no idea that everything around them was purely imagined until the dream had gone.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Red Garden

“a place where people heard what she said but not what she meant. She wanted to be known, but no one knew her.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Red Garden

“That spring he found the old bear, dead, in one of the caves. He slept beside the body. He dreamed the bear was his father. That was when he gave up being human. He gave her up as well.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Red Garden

“She had the feeling that if she went home, she might never get away. She thought of birds caught in nets. There was something inside her, beating against her ribs, urging her to do things she might not otherwise attempt. She had the strongest desire to get lost.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Red Garden

“They might curse you, even despise you for doing so, but it took strong measures to ensure that a boy lived long enough to become a man.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Red Garden

“But children can tell when love has been lost, they know when silence means peace and when it's a sign of despair.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Red Garden

“The burial crew found him at Sara’s grave one day that summer. Without bothering to ask permission from the town council, they buried him there, beside my sister. Everything was green. For me, this was the most beautiful time of the year in Berkshire County, before the leaves all turned color and dropped away. They say that dogs may dream, and when Topsy was old, his feet would move in his sleep. With his eyes closed he would often make a noise that sounded quite human, as if greeting someone in his dreams. At first it seemed that he believed Sara would return, but as the years went by I understood that his loyalty asked for no reward, and that love comes in unexpected forms. His wish was small, as hers had been—merely to be beside her.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Red Garden

“Hard times make for simple minds,”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Red Garden

“he couldn't remember how it felt to live his life without his dog.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Red Garden

“He thought about where it was people went when they died, & how when he squinted he could see Cody, racing back & forth, barking, how his father seemed to stand right there on the riverbank, turning back the bees, closer than he'd ever been before.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Red Garden

“She liked to disappear, even when she was in the same room as other people. It was a talent, as it was a curse. There was something that come between Emily and other people, a white linen curtain, hazy. It made the world quieter and farther away, although occasionally she could see through to the other side.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Red Garden

“Evan's head was filled with the sound of water. He thought of the ghost in the grass, her blue dress and bare feet. He thought of the way the doves had flown up into the sky all in a ruse, startled by gunfire, and then all he could think was that despite everything that happened, he was alive.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Red Garden

“Evan's head was filled with the sound of water. He thought of the ghost in the grass, her blue dress and bare feet. He thought of the way the doves had flown up into the sky all in a rush, startled by gunfire, and then all he could think was that despite everything that happened, he was alive.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Red Garden

“I fear myself more than I fear any bear,' Emily blurted. It was the way she'd felt in her aloneness, the comfort she took in being on the mountain.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Red Garden

“Salvation was mysterious, wasn’t that always true?”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Red Garden

“Don't worry, I'm not afraid of words.”
― Alice Hoffman, quote from The Red Garden

About the author

Popular quotes

“Everything is connected to everything else, every story overlaps with every other story.”
― Paul Auster, quote from Leviathan

“Rome fell because of inner weakness, either social or spiritual; or Rome fell because of outer pressure—the barbarian hordes. What we can say with confidence is that Rome fell gradually and that Romans for many decades scarcely noticed what was happening.”
― Thomas Cahill, quote from How the Irish Saved Civilization

“Had the Battle of Franklin ever really ended? Carrie walked her cemetery, and around her the wounds closed up and scarred over, but only in that way that an oak struck by lightning heals itself by twisting and bending around the wound: it is still recognizably a tree, it still lives as a tree, it still puts out its leaves and acorns, but its center, hidden deep within the curtain of green, remains empty and splintered where it hasn't been grotesquely scarred over. We are happy the tree hasn't died, and from the proper angle we can look on it and suppose that it is the same tree as it ever was, but it is not and never will be.”
― Robert Hicks, quote from The Widow of the South

“My stepfather, John O'Hara, was the goodest man there was. He was not a man of many words, but of carefully chosen ones. He was the one parent who didn't try to fix me. One night I sat on his lap in his chair by the woodstove, sobbing. He just held me quietly and then asked only, "What does it feel like?" It was the first time I was prompted to articulate it. I thought about it, then said, "I feel homesick." That still feels like the most accurate description - I felt homesick, but I was home.”
― Sarah Silverman, quote from The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee

“He crowded right up into her space, pressed his body against hers—trapping her against the glass of the door behind her, plunged his hands into her hair until he was cupping the nape of her neck, and devoured her lips with his.”
― Laura Kaye, quote from Hearts in Darkness

Interesting books

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.