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

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Popular quotes

“I'll be back at sea by then," Bradshaw put in, "so I'll comfort myself with the knowledge that you'll name
the infant after me."
"I don't think 'Half-wit' will pass muster with Georgie, but I'll let her know that's your suggestion.”
― Suzanne Enoch, quote from England's Perfect Hero

“The desire to make art begins early. Among the very young this is encouraged (or at least indulged as harmless) but the push toward a 'serious' education soon exacts a heavy toll on dreams and fantasies....Yet for some the desire persists, and sooner or later must be addressed. And with good reason: your desire to make art -- beautiful or meaningful or emotive art -- is integral to your sense of who you are. Life and Art, once entwined, can quickly become inseparable; at age ninety Frank Lloyd Wright was still designing, Imogen Cunningham still photographing, Stravinsky still composing, Picasso still painting.

But if making art gives substance to your sense of self, the corresponding fear is that you're not up to the task -- that you can't do it, or can't do it well, or can't do it again; or that you're not a real artist, or not a good artist, or have no talent, or have nothing to say. The line between the artist and his/her work is a fine one at best, and for the artist it feels (quite naturally) like there is no such line. Making art can feel dangerous and revealing. Making art is dangerous and revealing. Making art precipitates self-doubt, stirring deep waters that lay between what you know you should be, and what you fear you might be. For many people, that alone is enough to prevent their ever getting started at all -- and for those who do, trouble isn't long in coming. Doubts, in fact, soon rise in swarms:

"I am not an artist -- I am a phony. I have nothing worth saying. I'm not sure what I'm doing. Other people are better than I am. I'm only a [student/physicist/mother/whatever]. I've never had a real exhibit. No one understands my work. No one likes my work. I'm no good.

Yet viewed objectively, these fears obviously have less to do with art than they do with the artist. And even less to do with the individual artworks. After all, in making art you bring your highest skills to bear upon the materials and ideas you most care about. Art is a high calling -- fears are coincidental. Coincidental, sneaky and disruptive, we might add, disguising themselves variously as laziness, resistance to deadlines, irritation with materials or surroundings, distraction over the achievements of others -- indeed anything that keeps you from giving your work your best shot. What separates artists from ex-artists is that those who challenge their fears, continue; those who don't, quit. Each step in the artmaking process puts that issue to the test.”
― quote from Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

“Raisins again. I like raisins, but I have a habit of losing one or two on the floor every time I eat them. I always find them later and think they are: a) a mouse turd or b) a cockroach. Then I figure out it's a raisin and sigh with relief. This pretty much happens every time I find a lost raisin.”
― Julie Halpern, quote from Get Well Soon

“No one called me Krishna in Gokul. I was lovingly called Kanhaiya or Kanha—the adolescent—by the village folk. My pranks and naughtiness were a frequent topic of discussion. My insatiable appetite for butter earned me the title of ‘Maakhan Chor’ in the village.”
― Ashwin Sanghi, quote from The Krishna Key

“How wrong Emily Dickinson was! Hope is not "the thing with feathers." The thing with feathers has turned out to be my nephew. I must take him to a specialist in Zurich.”
― Woody Allen, quote from Without Feathers

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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.

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