Tracy Chevalier Quotes & Sayings

We do not need such things to help us to see God," I countered. "We have His Word, and that is
enough. — Tracy Chevalier

Say something worth the words. — Tracy Chevalier

of all the cities he had been to - Detroit, Indianapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, Salt Lake City - San Francisco was by far the worst. — Tracy Chevalier

I could not think of anything but his fingers on my neck, his thumb on my lips. — Tracy Chevalier

I had walked along that street all my life, but had never been so aware that my back was to my home — Tracy Chevalier

There followed a time when everything was dull. The things that had meant something lost importance, though they were still there, like bruises on the body that fade to hard lumps under the skin. — Tracy Chevalier

Lick your lips, Griet."
I licked my lips.
"Leave your mouth open."
I was so surprised by this request that my mouth remained open of its own will. I blinked back tears. Virtuous women did not open their mouths in paintings. — Tracy Chevalier

He could not tell all of the California pines apart, the gray pine from the coulter, the bushop from the knobcone and the Monterey. — Tracy Chevalier

I did not mind the cold so much when he was there. — Tracy Chevalier

Yes, well, life is a folly. If you live long enough, nothing is surprising. — Tracy Chevalier

God placed the fossils there when He created the rocks, to test our faith, he responded at last. As He is clearly testing yours Miss Philpot.
It is my faith in you that is being tested, I thought. — Tracy Chevalier

There is no need to fear," he said, "for you are here with me. — Tracy Chevalier

I read a lot of fantasy. I adored 'Anne of Green Gables'. But my favourite books as a child were probably Laura Ingalls Wilder's 'Little House' series, about a pioneer family in the mid-19th-century American west. I often thought of them as I was writing 'The Last Runaway'. — Tracy Chevalier

Jane Austen easily used half a page describing someone else's eyes; she would not appreciate summarizing her reading tastes in ten titles. — Tracy Chevalier

Although we kept the door ajar so that we could hear, we could not see beyond the gentlemen standing in front of the door in the crowded room. I felt trapped behind a wall of men that separated me from the main event. — Tracy Chevalier

He made me feel an idiot, even when I knew he was a bigger one than I. — Tracy Chevalier

Had come to London for a reason, not to enjoy anonymity and solitude whilst eyeing the wider horizon. — Tracy Chevalier

But dying was no drama. Dying was cold and hard and painful, and dull. It went on too long. I was exhausted and growing bored with it. Now I had too much time to think about whether I was going to die from the tide — Tracy Chevalier

I did not sleep well that night. I was not used to having the power to affect someone's life so and did not easily carry its weight, as a man might have done. — Tracy Chevalier

Although I always said that I wanted to be a writer from childhood, I hadn't actually done much about it until I came to London. — Tracy Chevalier

For myself, it took only the early discovery of a golden ammonite, glittering on the beach between Lyme and Charmouth, for me to succumb to the seductive thrill of finding unexpected treasure. — Tracy Chevalier

Perhaps thee will best understand what Abigail is like if I tell thee that when she quilts she prefers to stitch in the ditch, hiding her poor stitches in the seams between the blocks. — Tracy Chevalier

I have always admired most those who lead with their eyes, like Mary Anning, for they seem more aware of the world and its workings. — Tracy Chevalier

He spoke her name as though he held cinnamon in his mouth. — Tracy Chevalier

Don't write about what you know - write about what you're interested in. Don't write about yourself - you aren't as interesting as you think. — Tracy Chevalier

It's a rare book that wins the battle against drooping eyelids. — Tracy Chevalier

The grandeur false if you were not grand yourself. — Tracy Chevalier

I knew that he would go out to the tavern, returning with eyes like glittering spoons. — Tracy Chevalier

That's how fossil hunting is: It takes over, like a hunger, and nothing else matters but what you find. And even when you find it, you still start looking again the next minute, because there might be something even better waiting. — Tracy Chevalier

The sign of a masterpiece: A painting when there's a lack of resolution. — Tracy Chevalier

Married women that I noticed, their solid smugness at not having to worry about the course of their future. Married women were set like jelly in a mold, whereas spinsters like me were formless and unpredictable. I patted my basket. I have my own fossils, — Tracy Chevalier

Spent much of my life in Lyme with my eyes fixed to the ground in search of fossils. Such hunting can limit a person's perspective. — Tracy Chevalier

I heard voices outside our front door - a woman's, bright as polished brass, and a man's, low and dark like the wood of the table I was working on. They were the kind of voices we heard rarely in our house. I could hear rich carpets in their voices, books and pearls and fur. — Tracy Chevalier

I have consistently loved books that I've read when I've been sick in bed. — Tracy Chevalier

It's those little daily incidents of life that are dramatic, and if you put a frame around it , suddenly they become much bigger and much more important than you ever imagined. — Tracy Chevalier

Younger women tend to be busier, wearing more layers and more make-up. I don't know if it's because older women are more confident, or just that we don't care any more. But that pared-down approach is the same with the sentences I write; I take out adjectives and adverbs and keep the description to a minimum. — Tracy Chevalier

This is not your land," William Lobb said.
"Oh, it is, it is. I got the papers. I can show you, back at the camp."
"This is Indian land, if it's anyone's." William Lobb spoke as if he hadn't heard Billie Lapham. "Those Miwoks encamped just south of here - they've been here longer than you. It's theirs, or it's God's land - take your pick. — Tracy Chevalier

As I get older, I use less jewelry - necklace or earrings each morning, not both; my clothes are getting more basic - fewer colours and simpler cuts; and my make-up is stripped back to basics. — Tracy Chevalier

Have noticed that people do not change which feature they lead with, any more than they change in character. — Tracy Chevalier

Pieter would be pleased with the rest of the coins, the debt now settled. I would not have cost him anything. A maid came free. — Tracy Chevalier

There is a difference between Catholic and Protestant attitudes to painting," he explained as he worked, "but it is not necessarily as great as you may think. Paintings may serve a spiritual purpose for Catholics, but remember too that Protestants see God everywhere, in everything. By painting everyday things-tables and chairs, bowls and pitchers, soldiers and maids-are they not celebrating God's creation as well? — Tracy Chevalier

There was something different about her, though I could not say exactly what it was. It was as if she were more certain. If someone were sketching her they would use clear, strong lines, whereas before they might have used faint marks and more shading. She was like a fossil that's been cleaned and set so everyone can see what it is. — Tracy Chevalier

But John Chapman told us he didnt eat meat cause he couldnt stand for somethin livin to be killed jest to keep him alive. — Tracy Chevalier

As a reader, I happen to like turning pages and wanting to know what happens next. — Tracy Chevalier

They were a mother's words, words I would say to my own daughter if I were concerned for her — Tracy Chevalier

I find that when I come out of the library I'm in what I call the library bliss of being totally taken away from the distractions of life.
[Woman's Day magazine, March 12, 2002] — Tracy Chevalier

I try to write 1,000 words a day - about three pages. When I reach 1,000 words I feel good. Less than that: a failure. More than that: tired. — Tracy Chevalier

Warp threads are thicker than the weft, and made of a coarser wool as well. I think of them as like wives. Their work is not obvious - all you can see are the ridges they make under the colorful weft threads. But if they weren't there, there would be no tapestry. Georges would unravel without me. — Tracy Chevalier

I have a bed and enough to eat and kind people about me. God is still with me. For these things I am grateful and have no reason to complain — Tracy Chevalier

I wanted to wear the mantle and the pearls. I wanted to know the man who painted her like that. — Tracy Chevalier

You're so calm and quiet, you never say. But there are things inside you. I see them sometimes, hiding in your eyes. — Tracy Chevalier

I missed the currency of ideas. In London we had been part of a wide circle of solicitors' families, and social occasions had been mentally stimulating as well as entertaining. — Tracy Chevalier

I liked sleeping in the attic. There was no Crucifixion scene hanging at the foot of the bed to trouble me. There were no paintings at all, but the clean scent of linseed oil and the musk of the earth pigments. I liked my view of the New Church, and the quiet. No one came up except him. The girls did not visit me as they sometimes had in the cellar, or secretly search through my things. i felt alone there, perched high above the noisy household, able to see it from a distance. — Tracy Chevalier

My father was often impatient during March, waiting for winter to end, the cold to ease, the sun to reappear. March was an unpredictable month, when it was never clear what might happen. Warm days raised hopes until ice and grey skies shut over the town again. — Tracy Chevalier

It seemed to me that the baker had an honest response to the painting. Van Ruijven tried too hard when he looked at paintings, with his honeyed words and studied expressions. He was too aware of having an audience to perform for, whereas the baker merely said what he thought. — Tracy Chevalier

I felt as if my parents had pushed me into the street, that a deal had been made and I was being passed into the hands of a man. At least he is a good man, I thought, even if his hands are not as clean as they could be. — Tracy Chevalier

At first I could not meet his eyes. When I did it was like sitting close to a fire that suddenly blazes up. — Tracy Chevalier

Molly was up now, sitting in the kitchen nursing the babies and instructing Mrs. Bienenstock on how to make biscuits. "Don't pound the dough, Dody!" Molly was crying with laughter. "You want to end up crackin' your teeth on 'em? Pat it gentle like it's a baby. That's better." Robert had only ever seen his landlady make coffee and eggs, and he did not think she would take kindly to being taught. But Mrs. B. seemed willing; she was smoothing out the biscuit dough into a round on the table. Neither woman even glanced over at him as he moved between the yard and the wagon with the pails. "Now, take this cup," Molly ordered, "and cut out some circles. Don't twist it! Twistin' seals the dough and it don't rise so well. Jest press and bring the cup back out. There now, put that on your sheet for bakin'." "We're — Tracy Chevalier

What made him most attractive was that he was attracted to her. Another's interest can be a powerful stimulant. She could feel his eyes on her as an almost physical pressure. — Tracy Chevalier

Everybody asks the same questions
but they don't know that they ask the same questions. — Tracy Chevalier

I knew I should believe him, as he taught at Oxford, but his answers did not feel complete. It was like having a meal and not getting quite enough to eat. — Tracy Chevalier

It was not a house where secrets could be kept easily. — Tracy Chevalier

Only thieves and children run. — Tracy Chevalier

While Molly and Joseph Anning suffered materially that winter, with many days of weak soup and weaker fires, Mary barely noticed how little she was eating or the chilblains on her hands and feet. She was suffering inside. — Tracy Chevalier

Prying out a stump reminded him of how deeply a tree clung to the ground, how tenacious a hold it had on a place. Though he was not a sentimental man - he did not cry when his children died, he simply dug the graves and buried them - James was silent each time he killed a tree, thinking of its time spent in that spot. He never did this with the animals he hunted - they were food, and transient, passing through this world and out again, as people did. But trees felt permanent - until you had to cut them down. — Tracy Chevalier

My writing routine is: get son off to school and sit down at 8 A.M. I read what I wrote the day before, and then write longhand, into a notebook. I prefer paper and pen because it feels closer to my brain. — Tracy Chevalier

Truly to appreciate what fossils are requires a leap of imagination he was not capable of making. — Tracy Chevalier

We had not meant our choice to cut us off from our past, but it did. We had only the present and the future to think of in Lyme. — Tracy Chevalier

Paintings may serve a spiritual purpose for Catholics, but remember too that Protestants see God everywhere, in everything. By painting everyday things - tables and chairs, bowls and pitchers, soldiers and maids - are they not celebrating God's creation as well?" I — Tracy Chevalier

He stood there at the edge of the orchard looking like he would never be whole again. — Tracy Chevalier

I slowed my pace. Years of hauling water, wringing out clothes, scrubbing floors, emptying chamber pots, with no chance of beauty or color or light in my life, stretched before me like a landscape of flat land where, a long way off, the sea is visible but can never be reached. — Tracy Chevalier

This was the sort of situation that she read about in the novels she favored, by authors such as Miss Jane Austen, whom Margaret was sure she'd met long ago at the Assembly Rooms the first time we visited Lyme. One of Miss Austen's books had even featured Lyme Regis, but I did not read fiction and could not be persuaded to try it. Life itself was far messier and didn't end so tidily with the heroine making the right match. We Philpot sisters were the very embodiment of that frayed life. I did not need novels to remind me of what I had missed. — Tracy Chevalier

It is less distracting in the silence," she said. "Sustained silence allows one truly to listen to what is deep inside. We call it waiting in expectation. — Tracy Chevalier

He had decided to trust me. — Tracy Chevalier

People had gone west leaving behind all sorts of trouble; what they found in California was the space and freedom to create new trouble. — Tracy Chevalier

Over his shoulder I saw a star fall. It was me. — Tracy Chevalier

A firefly landed on Honor's sleeve and began walking up her shoulder, its tail still blinking. As she craned her neck to look down at it, Jack chuckled. "Don't be scared. It's just a lightning bug." He placed his finger in its path. Honor tried not to think about the pressure of his touch. When the firefly crawled onto his finger, he lifted it up and let it fly off, signaling its escape route with sparks of light. — Tracy Chevalier

You know I don't listen to market gossip," she began,
"but it is hard not to hear it when my daughter's name is mentioned. — Tracy Chevalier

Because thee remains there, it is easier for me to go, for thee can be the shore I look back on, the star that remains fixed."
from "The Last Runaway — Tracy Chevalier

It's simple, Miss Philpot. This is one of God's early models, and He decided to give the subsequent ones smaller eyes." I raised my eyebrows. "Do you mean God rejected it?" "I mean God wanted a better version - the crocodile we know now - and replaced it. — Tracy Chevalier

I leaned agains the warm brick wall and gazed up. It was a bright, cloudless day, the sky a mocking blue. It was the kind of day when children ran up and down the streets and shouted, when couples walked out through the town gates, past the windmills and along the canals, when old women sat in the sun and closed their eyes. My father was probably sitting on the bench in front of the house, his face turned towards the warmth. Tomorrow night might be bitterly cold, but today it was spring. — Tracy Chevalier

Twenty-first-century attitudes towards time and our expectations of story are very different from the shape of Mary Anning's life. She spent day after day, year after year, doing the same thing on the beach. I have taken the events of her life and condensed them to fit into a narrative that is not stretched beyond the reader's patience. Hence events, while in order, do not always coincide exactly with actual dates and time spans. Plus, of course, I made up plenty. For instance, while there was gossip about Mary and Buckland and Mary and Birch, there was no proof. That is where only a novelist can step in. — Tracy Chevalier

We say very little, for we do not need to. We are silent together, each in her own world, knowing the other is just at her back. — Tracy Chevalier

What do you believe, Aunt Elizabeth?'
'I believe ... I am comfortable with reading the Bible figuratively rather than literally. For instance, I think the six days in Genesis are not literal days, but different periods of creation, so that it took many thousands
or hundreds of thousands of years
to create. It does not demean God; it simply gives Him more time to build this extraordinary world.'
'And the ichthyosaurus and plesiosaurus?'
'They are creatures from long, long ago. They remind us that the world is changing. Of course it is. I can see it change when there are landslips at Lyme that alter the shoreline. It changes when there are earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and floods. And why shouldn't it? — Tracy Chevalier

California is where you get to start over. — Tracy Chevalier

Normally book ideas come to me in a moment. — Tracy Chevalier

He saw things in a way that others did not, so that a city I had lived in all my life seemed a different place, so that a woman became beautiful with the light on her face. — Tracy Chevalier

So many (too many) books are published every year, and it seems everyone is writing a book. Perhaps we should all be reading more and writing less! — Tracy Chevalier

It turned out plant collecting was a solitary occupation. In the past Robert had enjoyed being alone, or so he thought. Actually he had rarely been alone for long: working in hotels, in stables, on ranches and farms, and as a miner, he had always been around others. Now, out in the woods or up in the hills or out on the flat central plain, he could go for days without speaking to anyone. His throat seemed to close up and he had to keep clearing it, singing songs aloud or reciting the Latin names of plants, just to check that he still had a voice. 'Araucaria imbricata. Sequoia sempervirens. Pinus lambertiana. Abies magnifica'. He was surprised at how much he missed people.. — Tracy Chevalier

He was a collector rather than a hunter, buying his knowledge rather than seeking it with his own eyes and hands. I — Tracy Chevalier

I have spent my life waiting for something to happen,' she said. 'And I have come to understand that nothing will. Or it already has, and I blinked during that moment and it's gone. I don't know which is worse - to have missed it or to know there is nothing to miss. — Tracy Chevalier

Oh, I was lucky, you know, to get anyone. I was what they called an old bride of twenty-six. Of course I married him. Everyone needs to keep something private from their family.
Like a shutter in a rainstorm, banging against the window, I venture forth, retreat back, try afresh, retreat again. Nothing changes in my life and yet nothing is the same.
That did not help, Ed knew as the words hung between them and he had that all-too-familiar sensation of wanting to claw them from the air and stuff them back in his mouth.
We were all in small pieces that didn't fit together, too many countries, too many scars, too many secrets inside us.
How do you make a stranger so intimate when they could easily destroy you? — Tracy Chevalier

I didn't move. I've learned from years of experience that dogs and falcons and ladies come back to you if you stay where you are. — Tracy Chevalier

I feel like a bird who has been wounded with an arrow and now cannot fly. — Tracy Chevalier

My mommy told me
If I was goody
That she would buy me
A rubber dolly

My sister told her
I kissed a soldier
Now she won't buy me
That rubber dolly

Now I am dead
And in my grave
And there beside me
A rubber dolly — Tracy Chevalier

Margaret grasped on to the magic of novels because they held out hope that Mary - and she herself - might yet have a chance at marriage. While my own experience of life was limited, I knew such a thing would not happen. It hurt, but the truth often does. — Tracy Chevalier

Life itself was far messier and didn't end so tidily with the heroine making the right match. — Tracy Chevalier

not of this world, — Tracy Chevalier

If redwoods are the backbone of California, oaks are of England. — Tracy Chevalier