Sarah Addison Allen Quotes & Sayings
Enjoy the top 100 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Sarah Addison Allen.
Famous Quotes By Sarah Addison Allen
No, you're not. Go coax the shirt off someone else. Your charm doesn't work on me. I have a force field deflecting it." "Please. You'd have no idea what to do if I turned it on full blast." "You're not scaring me." "Yes, I am. And that's why I'm stopping. I want to talk about it, Julia," he said. "But not now." He rolled onto his back, the golden hairs on his legs and arms sparkling like spun sugar. — Sarah Addison Allen
Up to the counter in her white kitten heels. I haven't seen you in a month of Sundays. I always try to get — Sarah Addison Allen
He'd always liked the way Josey smelled. He thought about how she was wearing her curly black hair down that night, how she was in that tight sweater he'd seen her in so many times, the red so striking against her pale skin. And he wasn't the only man here who had noticed. — Sarah Addison Allen
You asked what the wallpaper was in Mom's old room. It's lilacs."
"Ah. It was always flowers, usually roses, when she was a little girl. It changed a lot as she got older. I remember once it was lightning bolts on a tar-black background. And then another time it was this scaly blue color, like a dragon's belly. She hated that one, but couldn't seem to change it. — Sarah Addison Allen
I know he's a good baby ... but the challenge is to raise him into a good boy, then a good man. — Sarah Addison Allen
They all watched Devin run up to meet the other girls. For a moment Kate felt indescribably sad, because she couldn't go with Devin back to her childhood. She could only stand here as an adult as the distance became greater and greater until, finally, there was an ocean between them. — Sarah Addison Allen
The thing most consistently on my desk as I write is a cat - a different one at different times of the day. I think I'm more a part of their ritual. — Sarah Addison Allen
Sometimes people who had been together for a long time got to imagining that things used to be better, even when they weren't. — Sarah Addison Allen
Everything had felt so precarious since her mother's death, like she was walking on a bridge made of paper. — Sarah Addison Allen
But we spend all our lives looking for puzzle pieces that will give us a clearer picture of ourselves, of where we're supposed to go and who we're supposed to be. — Sarah Addison Allen
There was always a slight upswing in February, the town's coldest month, when out-of-towners liked to hike into the national park to see the famous waterfalls when they rose, like bridal veils, against the mountains. But mostly, from December to April, those who made their living off tourists just suffered through, dreaming of warmer months, of kingfisher-blue skies and leaves so green they looked like they'd just been painted, as if the color would smear if you touched it. — Sarah Addison Allen
He reached out and pushed some hair behind her ears. The gesture was tender, but it hit her with an unexpected force, like when you're in the ocean and a wave hits you. It's so soft and coll that it surprised you that it has such strength. — Sarah Addison Allen
But a woman's ability to surprise herself is far stronger than her ability to surprise others. — Sarah Addison Allen
Young girls always know. They know older women look at them and see what they've left behind and can't get back. It's a truth everyone knows but no one acknowledges: There's nothing more powerful than an eighteen-year-old girl. — Sarah Addison Allen
He had lines around his eyes from years of squinting against the sun. The sun. That's exactly what it felt like to her, giving her light and nourishment, always there, predictable. — Sarah Addison Allen
When you take your heart out of your chest and hold it out for all to see, it's not like you can expect everyone not to notice. Phin — Sarah Addison Allen
But relying on one person for your every need is so dangerous. One set of hands isn't enough to keep you from falling. — Sarah Addison Allen
You do realize that the longer I stay here, the more likely she is to think we're doing something scandalous." "Like what? Stealing Stella's furniture?" "You're being obtuse." "And you're being manipulative." He shrugged. "If that's what it takes, then I have no problem with it." "Careful, Sawyer, you're acting a lot like you did when you were sixteen. And here I was thinking that you improved. so much. — Sarah Addison Allen
Sawyer was quiet for a moment as he studied her. She wished he would take off his sunglasses. She didn't like how uncomfortable she looked. — Sarah Addison Allen
My favorite quote for First Frost is, They give their hearts away too easily and get distracted by silver-eyed strangers. — Sarah Addison Allen
Bulahdeen ignored her. I taught literature for nearly forty years. The books I read when I was twenty completely changed when I read them when I was sixty. You know why? Because the endings changed. After you finish a book, the story still goes on in your mind. You can never change the beginning. But you can always change the end. That's what's happening here. — Sarah Addison Allen
Not that Agatha minded anything about money. That's what happens when you have too much of it. It becomes like dust, something that constantly moves around you but that you never actually touch. She — Sarah Addison Allen
Some of the best people i know are fools', Evanelle said. 'The strongest people I know. — Sarah Addison Allen
She dropped her hand to the side of the chair and it dangled in the air between them. And, like it had been perfectly choreographed, Henry reached over and took it. — Sarah Addison Allen
You can't change where you come from, but you can change where you go from here. Just like a book. If you don't like the ending, you can make up a new one. — Sarah Addison Allen
She'd been a beautiful woman in her day, delicate and trim, blue-eyed and fair-haired. There was a certain power beautiful mothers held over there less beautiful daughters. Even at seventy-four, with a limp from a hip replacement, Margaret could still enter a room and fill it like perfume. Josey could never do that. The closest she ever came was the attention she used to receive when she pitched legendary fits in public when she was young. But that was making people look at her for all the wrong reasons. — Sarah Addison Allen
Crystalline swirls of sugar and flour still lingered in the air like kite tails. — Sarah Addison Allen
There were crooked photos on the wall of Della Lee as a child, with dark hair and eyes. Josey wondered when she started dyeing her hair blond. In one photo she was standing on top of a jungle gym. In another she was diving not the public pool from the high dive. She looked like she was daring the world to hurt her. — Sarah Addison Allen
We decided to become a society of women, a club to make sure women were protected. The club was something important back then. Not like it is today. — Sarah Addison Allen
Take one man, one foolish woman, put them together in a bowl and stir. — Sarah Addison Allen
Sometimes, the best endings are the ones that surprise you. Sometimes, the best are the ones that have everything happening exactly how you want it to happen. But the absolute perfect endings are when you get a little of both. — Sarah Addison Allen
There's not a lot I can fix for her anymore. Band-Aid and bedtime story days are almost over. This, I can fix with a simple Welcome. — Sarah Addison Allen
Julie!" Sawyer called.
She felt a prickle along the back of her neck and picked up her pace. Regardless, Sawyer soon jogged up and fell into step with her. She cut her eyes at him. "Did you actually run after me?" He looked indignant, like he'd been caught doing something uncouth. "I wouldn't have had to if you had waited." "What do you want? — Sarah Addison Allen
To think, after all this time, after all the searching and all the waiting, after all the regret and the time she'd spent away, she came back to find that happiness was right where she's left it.
On a football field in Mullaby, North Carolina.
Waiting for her. — Sarah Addison Allen
Misfits need a place to get away, too. All that trying to fit in is exhausting. — Sarah Addison Allen
But surprises were nothing new to her. Like opening a can of mushroom soup and finding tomato instead; be grateful and eat it anyway. — Sarah Addison Allen
PAXTON OSGOOD'S FUTURE HUSBAND
Will be kind
Will be funny
Will be accepting
Will be be able to cook
Will be a good kisser
Will always surprise me
Will argue with me and sometimes let me win,
but not always
Will be mysterious
Will always love me, no matter what I look like
Mama will not like him, which means
I will love him even more — Sarah Addison Allen
There were some things that hadn't changed about Sydney, like her light-brown hair that had just enough natural curl to make it look like waves of caramel icing on a cake. And her beautiful lightly tanned skin. And the freckles across her nose. She'd lost weight but still had a stunning figure, petite in a way that always made Claire, who was four inches taller, feel heavy and clumsy. — Sarah Addison Allen
They lit candles on the table, all while the apple tree shook and blossoms continued to fall. When the petals hit the flames of the candles, they hissed and popped into ash, leaving behind a scent that was so beautiful and sweet that it smelled like both yesterday and tomorrow. — Sarah Addison Allen
It was hard not to feel sorry for a life that had no purpose of its own ... His only purpose, it seemed, was to come into her mother's life in order to send her home.
For that, Bay decided, she would be grateful.
For the rest, though, she wondered if she would ever be able to forgive him. She hoped she wouldn't remember him long enough to find out. — Sarah Addison Allen
Everything was quiet, a strange sort of quiet that felt like an unfinished sentence. — Sarah Addison Allen
Always make your needs and expectations known,she used to say. That way no one gets hurt. — Sarah Addison Allen
The comfort of browning butter and the excitement of lemon zest. — Sarah Addison Allen
I maced people for you," WIlla said; "you've got me for life — Sarah Addison Allen
It was early evening when they walked outside, the sky the color of pink lemonade. — Sarah Addison Allen
Some people come into your life and change it forever. — Sarah Addison Allen
There was a certain power beautiful mothers held over their less beautiful daughters. — Sarah Addison Allen
Old hands can hold memories of good things. — Sarah Addison Allen
This was an adventure. She was alive and awake and in charge, and Devin needed to see that. A kaleidoscope of landscapes passed like a slide show- farmland, sandy pine barrens, cypress ponds. This is what Kate's mother had referred to as the "Wet South, as they'd made their way to Lost Lake the last time. She'd made it sound unexplored and exotic, something untoward and almost fearful. — Sarah Addison Allen
How people choose to live their lives, and who they fall in love with, should never have to be defended. — Sarah Addison Allen
She'd just walked into heaven. And her grandmother was right there, in every scent.
Sugary and sweet.
Herby and sharp.
Yeasty and fresh. — Sarah Addison Allen
When you are abandoned as a child, you are never able to forget that people are capable of leaving, even if they never do. — Sarah Addison Allen
The neighborhood was quiet in that way only the cold could make it, as if freezing sounds before they hit the ground. — Sarah Addison Allen
You like to think you don't care, but you do. There's this little thing called give-and-take. Some people you can be yourself with, some people you have to be less weird with. And guess what? Those people are all over the place. You can't avoid them. The world isn't just yours. Everyone has to live in it. — Sarah Addison Allen
Magic is what we invent when we want something we think we can't have. — Sarah Addison Allen
Autumn felt like the whole world was browned and roasted until it was so tender it was about to fall away from the bone. — Sarah Addison Allen
The Waverley sisters had married men as steadfast and normal as the women were mercurial and strange. — Sarah Addison Allen
Just as she was about to turn, she caught a whiff of something sweet. She inhaled deeply, instinctively wanting to savor it, but then she nearly choked when it landed on her tongue with a bitter taste. It was so strong she actually made a face. That, her grandmother had described to her once after making a particularly bad lemon cream pie, was exactly what regret tasted like. — Sarah Addison Allen
Nothing is really broke, so it's not like I can fix it. I just have to keep trying to find what I'm looking for. — Sarah Addison Allen
Selma stood. "You can put a tuxedo on a goat, but it's still a goat."
"No, it's not," Bulahdeen said. "It's a completely different goat when you put a tuxedo on it. — Sarah Addison Allen
Mom! Look. This one is my favorite," Devin said, pulling out a faded pink dress with a red plaid sash. The crinoline petticoat underneath was so old and stiff it made snapping sounds, like beads or fire embers. She dropped the dress over her head, over her clothes. It brushed the floor. "When I'm old enough for it to fit me, I'm going to wear it with purple shoes," she said.
"A bold choice," Kate said as Devin dove back into the trunk. The attic in Kate's mother's house had always fascinated Devin with its promise of hidden treasures. When Kate's mother had been alive, she had let Devin eat Baby Ruth candy bars and drink grape soda and play in this old trunk full of dresses that generations of Morris women had worn to try entice rich men to marry them. Most of the clothes had belonged to Kate's grandmother Marilee, a renowned beauty who, like all the rest, had fallen in love with a poor man instead. — Sarah Addison Allen
It had taken her a long time to realize that a prison sometimes isn't a prison at all. Sometimes, it's simply a door you assume is locked because you've never tried to open it. — Sarah Addison Allen
He ignored that and sat on her towel at her feet. She could see her reflection in his sunglasses as he stared at her. What was he doing? Why was he being so familiar? The eighteen years of silence while she was gone, along with the year and a half of a cold shoulder she'd given him since she'd been back should have been more than enough to discourage him from sitting on her towel on the beach, inches away from her bare legs. — Sarah Addison Allen
I Have Not Yet Begun to Procrastinate" which was the quote on Bay's shirt from "First Frost — Sarah Addison Allen
Who I am, what I am, is the culmination of a lifetime of reading, a lifetime of stories. And there are still so many more books to read. I'm a work in progress. — Sarah Addison Allen
The smell of peppery warm cheese and thick, yeasty grilled bread was beginning to fill the air. She would give the sandwich to Della Lee when she got home, and while Della Lee ate the sandwich Josey would eat oatmeal pies and candy corn and packets of salty pumpkin seeds from her closet. — Sarah Addison Allen
A hummingbird cake, she decided as she turned on the kitchen light. It was made with bananas and pineapples and pecans and had a cream cheese frosting.
She would make it light enough to float away.
She reached over to open the window.
To float to her daughter. — Sarah Addison Allen
The cake sitting on the dining room buffet table was wide and three layers tall. There was a fondant topper shaped like a branch, and from that branch draped candy strings of Spanish moss, flowing down the side of the cake like a veil. Bey kept looking over it. Why did Lisette make it so large? They were going to be eating cake for weeks. — Sarah Addison Allen
Ice queens didn't break, after all. They melted. And Marco didn't have enough warmth for that. — Sarah Addison Allen
If they just carried on like always, everything would be ok. — Sarah Addison Allen
Those silly girls had no idea what they were really celebrating. They had no idea what it took to bring Agatha and her friends together seventy-five years ago. The Women's Society Club had been about supporting one another, about banding together to protect one another because no one else would. But it had turned into an ugly beast, a means by which rich ladies would congratulate themselves by giving money to the poor. And Agatha had let it happen. All her life, it seemed, she was making up for things she let happen. — Sarah Addison Allen
A sad sort of vulnerability was wafting from her, making the night smell like maple syrup. — Sarah Addison Allen
She'd wanted the attention, she'd wanted more people to know her gift, as if the more people who knew, the more real it would be. — Sarah Addison Allen
There was such a feeling of peace around them, it was soft and pink and smelled of butter. — Sarah Addison Allen
We need to set things in order, they all thought as Bay ran down the street every afternoon after school. But, as soon as she passed, their thoughts quickly drifted back to where they'd been before - — Sarah Addison Allen
Eby wanted to say so much to her. She wanted to say that waking up is the most important part of grieving, that so many women in their family failed to do it, and she was proud of Kate for fighting her way back. But Eby didn't say anything. She could fix a lot of things, but family wasn't one of them. It was one of the hardest things she'd ever had to come to terms with. — Sarah Addison Allen
There was something magnetic about him"
~Sarah Addison Allen — Sarah Addison Allen
But that would leave Paxton to fend for herself, and the last thing any woman wanted in this kind of situation was to look around and see all the people who could help her doing nothing. — Sarah Addison Allen
It took me a long time to realize this: We get to choose what defines us. — Sarah Addison Allen
The smell of rosin was strong. It reminded her of Christmas wreaths and red glass ornaments. It was a completely different world, a completely different season, than just a few steps away at the lake. — Sarah Addison Allen
If we measured life in the things that almost happened, we wouldn't get anywhere. — Sarah Addison Allen
Yellow joy was radiating from her. When you're happy for yourself, it fills you. When you're happy for someone else, it pours over. It was almost too bright to watch. — Sarah Addison Allen
Julia laughed. It was a great laugh, and hearing it was like stepping into a pot of sunshine. That she came bearing cake seemed oddly fitting. It was like she was made of cake, light and pretty and decorated on the outside- with her sweet laugh and pink streak in her hair- but it was anyone's guess what was on the inside. Emily suspected it might be something dark. — Sarah Addison Allen
Embarrassment felt a lot like eating chili peppers. It burned in the back of your throat and there was nothing you could do to make it go away. You just had to take it, suffer from it, until it eased off. — Sarah Addison Allen
The morning sun on her white hair and pale face made her seem almost translucent. She'd been a beautiful woman in her day, with wide eyes, high cheekbones, and a long, thin nose. Sometimes you could still catch sight of that beauty, and it was like looking through enchanted glass. — Sarah Addison Allen
I was just telling Claire about a guy I met in bread class. I hate him, but he could be my soul mate. — Sarah Addison Allen
She opened her eyes slowly and saw that a pale lavender moth had come to a rest on the back of her hand. She watched it from her pillow, wondering if it was real. It reminded her of her husband Matt's favorite T-shirt, which she'd hidden in a bag of sewing, unable to throw it away. It had a large faded moth on the front, the logo of a cover band out of Athens called the Mothballs.
That T-shirt, that moth, always brought back a strange memory of when she was a child. She used to draw tattoos of butterflies on her arms with Magic Markers. She would give them names, talk to them, carefully fill in their colors when they started to fade. When the time came that they wanted to be set free, she would blow on them and they would come to life, peeling away from her skin and flying away. — Sarah Addison Allen
In her mind, Em was a deranged ballerina-child who smelled like bubblegum and only ate McDonald's Happy Meals. — Sarah Addison Allen
Della Lee said, "I think heaven will be like a first kiss." "I hope so," Josey murmured. "Me too. — Sarah Addison Allen
At the end of the evening, Paxton and Willa walked Agatha out to the nurse's car, after Agatha had given them a blind tour of the Madam, pointing out by feel and memory everything she remembered about the house. She and Georgie sliding down the banister and their skirts flying up. Playing dolls in Georgie's room. Having pineapple upside-down cake the Jacksons' cook would make in a cast-iron frying pan, so that the brown sugar on top turned crispy. A slide-away secret compartment in the bookcase where they used to leave notes for each other. — Sarah Addison Allen
People like us will never really understand, Evanelle said. We fell in love with the men we were supposed to be with right off the bat. But women with broken hearts, they change. — Sarah Addison Allen
When Josey woke up and saw the feathery frost on her windowpane, she smiled. Finally, it was cold enough to wear long coats and tights. It was cold enough for scarves and shirts worn in layers, like camouflage. It was cold enough for her lucky red cardigan, which she swore had a power of its own. She loved this time of year. Summer was tedious with the light dresses she pretended to be comfortable in while secretly sure she looked like a loaf of white bread wearing a belt. The cold was such a relief. — Sarah Addison Allen
Jack seemed kind. He was craggy and athletic, with lines like parentheses around his mouth, as if everything he wanted to say was an afterthought. — Sarah Addison Allen
Men. You can't live with them, you can't shoot them. — Sarah Addison Allen