Alice Hoffman Quotes & Sayings

Because love is an act of will. You think it will just happen, but you have to make it so. Even when it's gone wrong. Wait and see. If love doesn't come to you, you have to go find it. — Alice Hoffman

He was so pale the freckles stood out on his face the way they did when he was upset or hadn't slept. She thought they might be telling her something if she could only understand the language of freckles. — Alice Hoffman

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. — Alice Hoffman

and behind them came the women, and then the children with sticks and stones in their hands. There was a line of fury on the ground, slithering forth. Someone — Alice Hoffman

Women know things that men will never know. We keep the best secrets. We tell the best stories. — Alice Hoffman

Fate could twist you around and around if you weren't careful. Just when you thought you knew where you were headed, you'd wind up in the opposite direction, or flattened against a wall. — Alice Hoffman

But at long last she had some privacy and could go more than ten minutes without someone getting in her business, informing her that everything she did was wrong. As if she didn't already know that. — Alice Hoffman

People all over town had listened for my grandfather's cries, but there were none.
Only silence. — Alice Hoffman

The grass he walked through was new and a sweet smell clung to his clothes. There was blue dye on his hands from the wild irises ... that the color of the sky was a shade that could never be replicated in any photograph, just as Heaven could never be seen from the confines of Earth. — Alice Hoffman

But as God created life, so did He create destruction. — Alice Hoffman

For love changes everything and forces us into lives we never imagined we might lead — Alice Hoffman

She didn't like being twelve. It felt like someplace between who she'd been and who she was about to be. It felt like no place at all. — Alice Hoffman

Still anyone who trusts a serpent deserves its bite. The wise see a creature for what it is, not what it says it may be. — Alice Hoffman

When all is said and done, the weather and love are the two elements about which one can never be sure. — Alice Hoffman

Make you want things you hadn't even known existed. — Alice Hoffman

From the time I could read, I found solace in my father's library...At the ages of ten and eleven and twelve I would have preferred to remain in the library... — Alice Hoffman

He had appeared beside her because she had wanted him to. She had called him to her, and was calling him still. Even when she fell asleep, she dreamed of water, as if the world were topsy-turvy and everything she cared about had been lost in the deep. She plunged through the green waves with her eyes wide open, searching for the world as she'd known it, but that world no longer existed; everything that had once been solid was liquid now, and the birds swam alongside the fish. — Alice Hoffman

Maybe a hundred years ago our people should have run away from this place, I said ...
And then run from the next place and the next place and the place after that? You run once, what makes you think you won't have to run all the rest of your life? ... We love moment to moment ... Everything changes. One minute we are part of the river, and the next we are joined with the sea. — Alice Hoffman

Your grand daughter may not be looking for trouble, but trouble is looking for her. — Alice Hoffman

The frightened walk away when love is difficult. I know that now. You have to be willing to give everything away. You have to be willing to end up with nothing. Only then will your heart be whole. — Alice Hoffman

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

What was a demon but a lost soul, one that had been forced to use his skills to survive. — Alice Hoffman

When you help others, your own troubles aren't as heavy. In fact, you can fold them like a handkerchief and place them in your pocket. They're still there, but they're not the only thing you carry. — Alice Hoffman

Once you possess something others do not, you are a target for the wicked. — Alice Hoffman

Lately, she's been wondering if perhaps when the living become the dead they leave an empty space behind, a hollow no one else can fill. — Alice Hoffman

Never look at other people's bad fortune,' my mother said. 'If you do, it will come back to find you instead of its rightful owner. — Alice Hoffman

WITCHES TAKE THEIR NAMES FROM PLACES, for places are what give them their strength. The place need not be beautiful, or habitable, or even green. Sand and salt, so much the better. Scrub pine, plumberry, and brambles, better still. From every bitter thing, after all, something hardy will surely grow. From every difficulty, the seed that's sewn is that much stronger. Ruin is the milk all witches must drink; it's the lesson they learn and the diet they're fed upon. — Alice Hoffman

But the best stories were about their mother, how her hair was as red as blood, how she had seventy-four freckles on her face, how she was a ferryboat captain's daughter who believed that people could fly. — Alice Hoffman

Close your eyes and listen, then walk twenty paces farther than you thought necessary. Just when you're certain you've lost your way completely, you'll be there. Open your eyes. — Alice Hoffman

Do people choose the art that inspires them - do they think it over, decide they might prefer the fabulous to the real? For me, it was those early readings of fairy tales that made me who I was as a reader and, later on, as a storyteller. — Alice Hoffman

The weak are cruel. The strong have no need to be. — Alice Hoffman

In a novel, you'll find yourself in a world of possibilities. You'll find shelter there. — Alice Hoffman

I was walking through a dream rather than living my life. I had become someone else, but who was that someone? — Alice Hoffman

What he was doing was actually a hundred times worse. He was telling her that he loved her, something he hadn't mentioned and may not have even known when they were married. She used to whisper it to him sometimes, while he was fucking her, and he had to turn off his mind every time she did that. For some reason that declaration had seemed like a curse to him back then; he couldn't even hear it spoken aloud — Alice Hoffman

She's not a demon, she's a woman. In this case, that's worse. — Alice Hoffman

In my family, a book can be a life raft. — Alice Hoffman

If she wanted to enter an otherworld, all she had to do was open a novel. — Alice Hoffman

Some fates are guaranteed, no matter who tries to intervene. — Alice Hoffman

Meg was a great reader and was never without a book; while walking to school she often had one open in her hands, so engrossed she would sometimes trip while navigating familiar streets. — Alice Hoffman

Love was like that, like a dream you didn't quite understand, one in which you didn't necessarily know what you were looking at until it was right in front of you. — Alice Hoffman

I would watch his footprints when he went and mourn him before he was gone. — Alice Hoffman

The Essenes forbade idols, as we did, but they were far stricter in their practices and would not even touch a coin with an imprint upon it. They believed no man should be king. Still they would not lift up arms or fight their oppressors. We were in the hands of Adonai, they insisted, therefore arrows and spears were meaningless. There were children of darkness and children of light and the true battle on earth was to remain in the light and praise the one who knows all, Elohim. — Alice Hoffman

A fortuneteller at a magicians' convention in Atlantic City once told him that when he fell in love it would be forever, and he laughed at the notion, but now he sees that reading was completely on target. — Alice Hoffman

No one knows you like a person with whom you've shared a childhood. No one will ever understand you in quite the same way. — Alice Hoffman

She said this world was a hole of darkness, of black light and evil and loss.
But if that were true, there would never have been any bright light in our lives. My mother would never have existed, my brother would never have been such a fine man, Andres would not be waiting for me somewhere, though I didn't know where. — Alice Hoffman

Ghosts are said to move in the corners of human sight. — Alice Hoffman

He still wanted to believe that people could survive their misfortunes. He believed that was all anyone had. — Alice Hoffman

Love ambushed you, it lay in wait, dormant for days or years. It was the red thread, the peach stone, the kiss, the forgiveness. It came after you, it escaped you, it was invisible, it was everything. — Alice Hoffman

The best way to die is when your living — Alice Hoffman

But now I understood that, although words were God's first creation, silence was closer to His divine spirit, and that prayers given in silence were infinitely greater than the thousands of words men might offer up to heaven. — Alice Hoffman

I should have begun to worry then, for as fortune comes to you, so does it slip away. — Alice Hoffman

Hearts were made for being broken. There's really no way around it if you want to be a human being. — Alice Hoffman

Love like this wasn't what he'd planned or wanted or expected, surely it was indeed a trap, for even when you tried to run away, it followed you through the grass and lay down beside you, it overtook common sense and willpower. — Alice Hoffman

Your sorrow will become smaller, like a star in the daylight that you can't even see. It's there, shining, but there is also a vast expanse of blue sky. — Alice Hoffman

Here's the thing about luck ... you don't know if it's good or bad until you have some perspective. — Alice Hoffman

People want to ignore what they can't understand. They're looking for logic at any cost. — Alice Hoffman

A lifetime is a lifetime whether it lasts one night or a hundred years. — Alice Hoffman

There is no fiercer enemy than a word. A word that can be written down in pages and punctuated by quotation marks and commas and spelled out in contracts and poems and sighs, in old whispers and song lyrics, in promises and vows. — Alice Hoffman

She had come to believe that if her father had wanted a docile daughter, he should never have allowed her access to the ocean. — Alice Hoffman

Then I understood that when someone begins to tell you her story, you are entwined together. Perhaps even more so if the ending hasn't been divulged. — Alice Hoffman

Do you think your mother came back?" Shelby asks him.
"Definitely. She's a cardinal who lives in my backyard. — Alice Hoffman

He carried so much suffering that it radiated out in waves. Sorrow is like that: whenever a person runs, it comes after him; it leaves an endless trail of pain. — Alice Hoffman

My theory is that everyone at one time or another has been at the fringe of society in some way: an outcast in high school, a stranger in a foreign country, the best at something, the worst at something, the one who's different. Being an outsider is the one thing we all have in common. — Alice Hoffman

How wonderful to say whatever you wanted without having to go over it in your mind, again and again, to make certain it wouldn't set him off. — Alice Hoffman

Unleavened Bread, all — Alice Hoffman

I'm much faster now. When you only have a certain amount of time to write, after a while you learn to use your time well or you stop writing. — Alice Hoffman

Even though she felt a wave of dread. If they knew she was nervous, she'd be at their mercy. But if they thought she was ice they'd be afraid to touch her. — Alice Hoffman

I know who you are in your heart,' Andres said. 'That's all that matters.' And that was it. That was the moment. Now I knew how I would feel if I ever lost him. That was how you knew love. My mother had told me that. All you had to do was imagine your life without the other person, and if the thought alone made you shiver, then you knew. — Alice Hoffman

This was what it was. The ruin of it. The depth of it. Have it once and you can have it again. That's the riddle. That's the truth. — Alice Hoffman

You are my armour and my sword, my faith and my treasure, everything I'm fighting for. — Alice Hoffman

He said God could distinguish a sinner from a sin. — Alice Hoffman

He studied me, searching my expression, not quite seeing what had happened but aware that something had changed. — Alice Hoffman

But when it comes to most skills, failure is the only way to become better at something. Knitting teaches you that. You may have to unwind all of your stitches and start anew. That doesn't mean you've wasted your time. You learn from every stitch, even those that don't amount to anything. All writers should be made to knit a hat before they start writing a novel. It would help with understanding the importance of revision, and that the process is what can bring you the most — Alice Hoffman

But chains made out of blood and memory were a thousand times more difficult to sever than those made of steel, and the past could overtake a person if she wasn't careful"
"The day had begun, cool and clear and absolutely impossible to avoid"
"Being a physician is like working on a machine that keeps breaking down, time after time"
"Honesty was like a stone, dropped and irretrievable once it was spoken aloud"
"Love was like that, like a dream you didn't quite understand, one in which you didn't necessarily know what you were looking at until it was right in front of you"
"adolescence is what makes the person — Alice Hoffman

He fell in love with the way she closed her eyes, long before he fell in love with her. — Alice Hoffman

Just know that what's done can be undone, but what's undone can never again be. — Alice Hoffman

Over the years I had grown attached to it, as men grow attached to their miseries and their burdens. — Alice Hoffman

The only people out at this hour were ones who couldn't sleep, those haunted by one thing or another: love thwarted, love lost, love thrown away. They were the sort of people who didn't want to be noticed, who wanted to slip through shadows, be alone with their despair. — Alice Hoffman

I'll pretend to be who they want me to be.' He grinned then, and she saw his youth. 'But it won't work. In the end I'll have to disappoint someone. Either them, or myself. — Alice Hoffman

Lust was a story I knew. There were many women I took to bed for the night. I yearned for them in the moment, but in the morning, any lover Id had was already claimed by the past, even if she was still calling my name. — Alice Hoffman

Let everyone see the blood,' he said. 'Don't clean it up. That's the only way people remember.' ... I could see the blood inside my head. It was with me forever, whether or not I wanted to forget. — Alice Hoffman

She wishes he would come to her tonight, climb in through the window to lie down beside her and explain how it's possible to love someone so much and still manage to carry on when you have to let them go. — Alice Hoffman

Sometimes the right thing feels all wrong until it is over and done with. — Alice Hoffman

I'm trying to find someone who doesn't want to be found."
"That can be as hard as looking for a shadow. — Alice Hoffman

What you dream, you can grow. Someone told me that, but I didn't believe it. I said I had nothing and that people with nothing are unable to dream. But I was wrong. — Alice Hoffman

Others said May was best, that sweet green time when lilacs bloomed and gardens along Main Street were filled with sugary pink peonies and Dutch tulips. — Alice Hoffman

Still, she knows one thing for certain: never judge a relationship unless you are the one wrapped up in its arms. — Alice Hoffman

As I turned the pages, I felt as if there were bees on my fingertips, for I had never felt so alive as when reading. — Alice Hoffman

As for me, sleep was a country I no longer visited, despite my incantation. When I did, I wished for my waking life, the hours when I didn't see the nightmare images of all that had happened and all I had become. — Alice Hoffman

Some things, when they change, never do return to the way they once were. Butterflies for instance, and women who've been in love with the wrong man too often. — Alice Hoffman

Don't make me sit through reality. — Alice Hoffman

He backed off, the way he always does, but it won't happen a second time. If he ever sees her again he's going to go right up to her and ask her to marry him, that's what he'll do. He's sick of letting fate roll right past him. — Alice Hoffman

How could I have been so stupid to ignore everything I'd had in my life? The color red alone was worth kingdoms. — Alice Hoffman

All things change, for that is the way of the world we walk through. — Alice Hoffman

Avoid men who call you Baby, and women who have no friends, and dogs that scratch at their bellies and refuse to lie down at your feet. Wear dark glasses; bathe with lavender oil and cool fresh water. Seek shelter from the sun at noon. — Alice Hoffman

I'd been bitten by a lion, but you had to look inside me to see the scar. — Alice Hoffman

She takes the fortune cookies from the bottom of the bag and throws them into a glass bowl she keeps in the closet. She has no desire to know what her future might hold. — Alice Hoffman

That is how you know you've left childhood behind-when you wish for time to go backward. — Alice Hoffman

Listen, and you'll hear a story being told, one you may need to know. — Alice Hoffman

Crying wasn't like riding a bike. Give it up, and you quickly forget how it's done. — Alice Hoffman