Quotes by Alice Hoffman

“Shelby watched the books burn. She wonders if words are pouring down on other people's houses,sad words, like beast and mourn and sorrow and mother.”

“I KNEW I MUST do all as I was told, yet something burned inside me, a seed of defiance that must have derived from a long-ago ancestor. Perhaps my mind was inflamed from the books I had read and th...”

“Feelings are best left concealed. They can bite you if you're not careful. They can eat you alive.”

“In a novel, you'll find yourself in a world of possibilities. You'll find shelter there.”

“Interesting, but she could see that the boy didn't have a single lie in him. A very rare condition, especially for the male of the species.”

“In my memories I have set my life in Brooklyn between pieces of glass, separate from my current existence, and this has enabled me to move forward. The past cannot tie me in knots, nor can it cause...”

“Although she'd never believe it, those lines in Gillian's face are the most beautiful part about her. They reveal what she's gone through and what she's survived and who exactly she is, deep inside.”

“They sealed this promise by hooking pinkies, the way they used to, long ago, when promises didn't hurt as much.”

“You want to know what love is? Its the thing that ruins you.”

“You want me to lie to you?" said McKay. I shrugged. Why not? I didn't mind lies.”

“Someone killed himself because of me once, Meredith said.People kill themselves because of what's inside of them, not because of other people.”

“I must keep my head and not give in to desire, for desire is what causes women to drown.”

“what was a rose but the living proof of desire, the single best evidence of human longing and earthly devotion. but desire could be twisted,after all, and Jealousy was the name of the rose that did...”

“Before she can stop herself, she thinks about desire, how it lives within you and yet is separate, surfacing when it chooses, without permission, in the harsh afternoon light, at the moment when yo...”

“He knew even at an early age of seven, how dangerous it was for someone like him to have hope. He knows how to have no expectations. He can completely control not just what he wants, but what he needs”

“What was desire anyway, when examined in the clear light of day? Was it the way a woman searched for her clothes in the morning, or the manner in which a man might watch her sit before the mirror a...”

“Once I knew nothing about McKay and now I knew everything about him. This seemed as good as any reason for not walking out the door. There are so many ways to stop the knowing, and I tried them all...”

“Perhaps it is possible to discover more in silence than in speech. Or perhaps it is only that those who are silent among us learn to listen.”

“The voice that arises out of the silence is something no one can imagine until it is heard. It roars when it speaks, it lies to you and convinces you, it steals from you and leaves you without a si...”

“There seemed to be handfuls of stars tossed right above the rooftops in Haddan, keeping the town still alight at midnight.”