Leslye Walton Quotes & Sayings

Just because love don't look the way you think it should, don't mean you don't have it. — Leslye Walton

The first of many autumn rains smelled smoky, like a doused campsite fire, as if the ground itself had been aflame during those hot summer months. It smelled like burnt piles of collected leaves, the cough of a newly revived chimney, roasted chestnuts, the scent of a man's hands after hours spent in a wood shop. — Leslye Walton

She wore light dabs of face powder on her cheeks to hide the permanent track marks left by so many tears. — Leslye Walton

He smiled then, bringing back that twinge in her stomach, something that she only later recognized as the pangs of desire. — Leslye Walton

It seemed there was no separating the girl from the wings. One could not survive without the other. — Leslye Walton

She is the glorious reincarnation of every woman ever loved. — Leslye Walton

To many, I was myth incarnate, the embodiment of a most superb legend, a fairy tale. Some considered me a monster, a mutation. To my great misfortune, I was once mistaken for an angel. To my mother, I was everything. To my father, nothing at all. To my grandmother, I was a daily reminder of loves long lost. But I knew the truth - deep down, I always did.
I was just a girl. — Leslye Walton

Summer rain smelled like newly clipped grass, like mouths stained red with berry juice - blueberries, raspberries, blackberries. It smelled like late nights spent pointing constellations out from their starry guises, freshly washed laundry drying outside on the line, like barbecues and stolen kisses in a 1932 Ford Coupe — Leslye Walton

But neither Emilienne nor Connor ever once stopped to ponder the miracles love might bring into their lives. Connor because he didn't know such things existed, and Emilienne because she did. — Leslye Walton

They died with empty bellies, their eyes vacant of both dreams and expression. — Leslye Walton

Happiness had a pungent scent, like the sourest lime or lemon. Broken hearts smelled surprisingly sweet. Sadness filled the air with a salty, sea-like redolence; death smelled like sadness. People carried their own distinct personal fragrances. — Leslye Walton

By this point Viviane Lavender had loved Jack Griffith for twelve years, which was far more than half of her life. If she thought of her love as a commodity and were to, say, eat it, it would fill 4,745 cherry pies. If she were to preserve it, she would need 23,725 glass jars and labels and a basement spanning the length of Pinnacle Lane.
If she were to drink it, she'd drown. — Leslye Walton

I love you, you know. Viviane let the words hang in the air between them for a moment, like a sweet pink cloud. Then she inhaled the words in whole, turned them over in her mouth, relished their solidity on her tongue. — Leslye Walton

Some sacrifices aren't worth the cost. Even, or perhaps most especially, those made out of love. — Leslye Walton

Gabe pulled her closer. You just lean on me, Vivi. I'll keep us both upright for a while. — Leslye Walton

She laughed for her wasted, difficult life that never had to be wasted or difficult in the first place. — Leslye Walton

But while the thought of being dead seemed appealing, the actual act of dying did not. — Leslye Walton

Because once things turned out, good or bad, there's nothing you can do about it. It just is. And Henry liked just is. — Leslye Walton

And that might just be the root of the problem: we're all afraid of each other, wings or no wings. — Leslye Walton

She spent her days trying to forget the sound of his voice, and her nights trying to remember. — Leslye Walton

Did I need to experience them if I could imagine them? — Leslye Walton

a Libra. Balanced. Diplomatic. Even-tempered. — Leslye Walton

Folks around here call us el destinos.
They like to say we came from the stars. And when I stare up at the infinite heavens stretched out above us like a shroud, it's hard to imagine we came from anywhere else. — Leslye Walton

But hidden by those large blooms was Emilienne's real garden: white chrysanthemums for protection, dandelion root for a good night's sleep, eucalyptus and marjoram for healing. There was foxglove, ginger, heather, and mint. The poisonous belladonna. The capricious peony. And lavender. One could never have enough lavender. — Leslye Walton

I have traveled through continents, languages, and time trying to understand all that I am and all that has made me such. — Leslye Walton

Gabe was unusually tall, so he had to be careful where he stood, for if he blocked the sun, his shadow could cause flowers to wither and old women to send their grandchildren inside to fetch their sweaters. Because of his height, many thought Gabe to be much older than he was. This was both a blessing and a curse. — Leslye Walton

Those born under Pacific Northwest skies are like daffodils: they can achieve beauty only after a long, cold sulk in the rain. — Leslye Walton

For a very long time, Viviane and Jack lived in that world people inhabit before love. Some people called that place friendship; others called it confusing. Viviane found it a pleasant place with an altitude that only occasionally made her nauseous. — Leslye Walton

When Constance Quakenbush smugly asked what she was going to do with her life, now that Jack Griffith was marrying that Laura Lovelorn girl, Viviane answered her with a soda fountain smile and a declaration: I'm going to fly. — Leslye Walton

Emilienne wore Maman's wedding dress. Just after the ceremony, Emilienne glanced in the mirror. She saw not her own reflection but a tall empty vase. — Leslye Walton

Love makes us such fools. — Leslye Walton

I wonder why I haven't seen that before."
"Maybe you just needed someone to help you see the parts that aren't so obvious. — Leslye Walton

To think Viviane was beautiful required a certain acquired taste. It was the kind of beauty perceived only through the eyes of love. — Leslye Walton

Folks around here like to say we came from the stars. Perhaps it's simpler to think of us not as human but as creatures made of stardust
that if you cut us, not blood but constellations will pour from out wounds. — Leslye Walton

She found that she did not mind losing the previous moment, for this one was just as lovely. — Leslye Walton

Death just seems to follow some of us, don't it? Death's been following me for years. It's easy to spot your own kind. That kind of sorrow you can't just wash away; it sticks to you. And people, they can tell. They can feel it. — Leslye Walton

Years later the lights of the growing city would erase the stars from the sky, but back then they shone through the branches like jailed fireflies. — Leslye Walton

I just don't think you should let other people d-define you,' Rowe said quickly. 'I think you could be anything you wanted. — Leslye Walton

That fact filled Gabe with so much hope that he grew another two inches just to have enough room to hold it all. — Leslye Walton

If mother kept a list of the reasons she confined me to the house on the hill, she'd have a length of paper that could stretch all the way down Pinnacle Lane and trail into the waters of the Puget Sound. It could choke passing sea life. It could flap in the wind like a giant white flag of surrender atop our house's widow's walk. — Leslye Walton

I found it ironic that I should be blessed with wings and yet feel so constrained, so trapped. It was because of my condition, I believe, that I noticed life's ironies a bit more often than the average person. I collected them: how love arrived when you least expected it, how someone who said he didn't want to hurt you eventually would. — Leslye Walton

I knew that in the second letter he misspelled the word existence, replacing the second e with an a; in the fourth he forgot to dot the i in believe. I slept with them not under my pillow but clutched in my hand, with the sweat from my dreams leaking from my palms and smudging the ink. — Leslye Walton

His heart line was long and curved, and she traced it with her eyes over and over again. A person with a curved heart line was a person capable of great warmth and kindness, a person willing to give their whole selves to love, no matter the cost. — Leslye Walton

Rowe shrugged. You. Just - you. — Leslye Walton

You don't have to carry it by yourself. — Leslye Walton

The Griffith House was like nothing Viviane remembered, reminding her of how fast the world changed and of how insignificant she was in the grand scheme of things. She thought it unfair that her life should be both irrelevant and difficult. One or the other seemed quite enough. — Leslye Walton

Because what else was there for me - an aberration, an untouchable, an outsider? What could I say when I was alone at night and the shadows came? How else could I calm the thud of my beating heart but with the words: This is my fate. — Leslye Walton

The days she was finally brought out of the house would later be remembered as a day when shadows seemed blacker, as if something more lingered in those darkened spaces. — Leslye Walton

Children betrayed their parents by becoming their own people. — Leslye Walton

To put it simply, my mother worried. She worried about our neighbors' reactions. Would they break me with their disparaging glances, their cruel intolerance? She worried I was just like every other teenage girl, all tender heart and fragile ego. She worried I was more myth and figment than flesh and blood. She worried about my calcium levels, my protein levels, even my reading levels. She worried she couldn't protect me from all of the things that had hurt her: loss and fear, pain and love. Most especially from love. — Leslye Walton

I have to remind myself that love comes in all sorts of packages. — Leslye Walton

I acknowledged Gabe and his attempts at flight the way a legless child might view a hopeful but misguided parent buying a house full of stairs. After a while, when Gabe offered me a morning greeting, it didn't feel like he was greeting me but rather a giant pair of wings; no girl, just feathers. — Leslye Walton

Viviane considered herself a rational woman.She was a Virgo. She was used to solving problems , even if it meant she spent far too much time mulling things over in the bathtub. This didn't make any sense; when she tried to envision her life without Jack or his without her , all she could think about were platypuses.What was a platypus but a kind of duck with fur?The whole idea of it was ridiculous and wrong. — Leslye Walton

She didn't see it because when it came to love, she saw what she wanted to see. — Leslye Walton

She struggled to distinguish between signs she received from the universe and those she conjured up in her head. — Leslye Walton

Why would you be given wings if you weren't meant to fly? — Leslye Walton

When American soil could be seen from the ship, the passengers breathed a collective sigh of relief so strong, it caused a change of direction in the winds, which added a day to their trip, but no matter. — Leslye Walton

It's ... dangerous for someone like me to be out in the open.' As if in response, my wings started to flutter beneath their shroud. I gave the cloak a good yank.
'Someone like you? Someone different, you mean?'
I shrugged. 'Yes,' I answered quietly, suddenly shy.
'So, is it dangerous for us or for you?'
'What do you mean?'
'I mean, are you the threat, or are we? — Leslye Walton

What use did the heart have for jewelry anyway? To use her words. — Leslye Walton

This time could be different. This time it could last. Maybe it would be a longer, deeper love: a real and solid entity that lived in the house, used the bathroom, ate their food, mussed up the linens in sleep. A love that pulled her close when she cried, that slept with its chest pressed against her back. — Leslye Walton

She didn't care if he brought her flowers. Or even an apology. She just needed him to be there. She needed him because that was the only thing that made sense. — Leslye Walton

Foreseeing the future, I would later learn, means nothing if there is nothing to be done to prevent it. — Leslye Walton

As he rose to leave, Jack was crushed by the realization that while his father considered himself to be a great man, in his father's eyes the best Jack could ever hope to be was useful. — Leslye Walton

I suppose even monsters can be afraid of the dark. — Leslye Walton

To my mother, I was everything. To my father, nothing at all. To my grandmother, I was a daily reminder of loves long lost. — Leslye Walton

I met someone.' And the leaves fell from the trees, landing to float in the calm black waters. — Leslye Walton

She could tell when a woman was pregnant - even before the woman herself might know -just from the way she smelled: a combinaison of brown sugar and Stargazer lilies. Happiness had a pungent scent, like the sourest lime or lemon. Broken hearts smelled surprisingly sweet. Sadness filled the air with a salty, sea-like redolence; death smelled like sadness. — Leslye Walton

Love, as most know, follows its own timeline. Disregarding our intentions or well rehearsed plans. — Leslye Walton

Dangers lurk around every corner for the strange. — Leslye Walton

Falling out of love was much harder than Gabe would have liked. Normally led through life by the heart attached to his sleeve, finding logic in love proved to be a bit like getting vaccinated for some dread disease: a good idea in the end, but the initial pain certainly wasn't any fun. He came to appreciate that there were worse ways to live than to live without love. For instance, if he didn't have arms, Gabe wouldn't be able to hide in his work. Yes, a life without arms would be quite tragic, indeed. — Leslye Walton

The first bout of warm spring rain caused normally respectable women to pull off their stockings and run through muddy puddles alongside their children. — Leslye Walton

I loved you before, Ava. Let me love you still. — Leslye Walton

The smell of glazed sugar and folded pride still lingered on her clothes. — Leslye Walton

And then, in shocked disappointment, and stunned horror, I'm sure, Connor Lavender realized he was dead. — Leslye Walton

Fate. As a child, that word was often my only companion. It whispered to me from dark corners during lonely nights. It was the song of the birds in spring and the call of the wind through bare branches on a cold winter afternoon. Fate. Both my anguish and my solace. My escort and my cage. — Leslye Walton

Because I'm your mother, that's why. — Leslye Walton