Quotes from Jenny Colgan

Marbled endpapers, Mr. McCredie observed, meant nothing to children. But they meant a lot to those who loved color and beauty and stories that would never end.

Comment aurais-tu pu apprécier à quel point la vie peut être belle, si elle n'avait jamais été pourrie?

La vie est un sursaut. Il faut s'adapter quoi qu'il arrive, non ?

There was a picture of Blair, white teeth gleaming, looking fit in a red jumper and a hat, sitting next to a huge Christmas tree surrounded by cheery multicultural children.

Le charme, c'est juste un moyen pour les connards de vous faire faire ce qu'ils veulent.

Dating in daylight was a completely preposterous affair, I had decided that morning. Dating stone-cold sober in the clear light of day was an absurd development.

It was almost the cruelest thing he did, not to leave me when I still had the chance of meeting someone else, when I still had a bit of juice left in me. Me and the woman who wrote that book—we both know we're better than that.

Maybe, she thought, everyone was only ever two feet from disaster, and it was luck, not fundamental goodness, that made all the difference.

Al die jaren hebben je gebracht waar je nu bent, hield ze zichzelf voor. Die jaren waren onontbeerlijk geweest. Als je gelukkig was geboren, hoe wist je dan wat het betekende om gelukkig te zijn? Hoe kon je je fijne leventje waarderen als je nooit in de shit had gezeten?

I found myself an unusual feeling: wanting to do something for solely the pure reasons that I wanted to do it. Not because I thought I ought to or because other people wanted me to do it or because it felt like the right age to be doing things or because it would lead me up the ladder.

No!" said Sofia. "I read! Self-help can be very useful." She gave her sister a meaningful look. "Really?" said Carmen. "As useful as Rainbow Rowell? Or Douglas Adams? I doubt it.

normally it's in like a lion, out like an even more annoyed lion, who is also drunk, but sometimes - just sometimes - the sun does come properly out and it feels like a benediction.

After years of working in public service, it had come as a bit of a surprise to her how genuinely interested she was in running a business; seeing what worked, looking at stock, and, of course, matching the right book to the right person. It was the same joy she had always felt at the library, but somehow, watching people leaving with books they could keep forever was even more profound.

Don't worry, it's completely worth it. It seems like absolutely horrible crap now, but I promise it will all come good in the end

The sun is shining, there's provisions, it's nesting season, the chooks are laying and we have peat for the fire; I genuinely don't see what you're worried about.

Or, if you were that way inclined, you could think of yourself sitting on the spine of a great beast, only the vertebrae visible. That was how people thought of it in the old days: something was sleeping beneath the waves, and if you were very lucky it let you live on its bumps.

it is not unreasonable to think that when you touch a baby's face you are touching the face of God. Have you ever seen a baby in an old people's home? They are worshipped. They become divine.

I always remember someone saying how ironic it is that Christmas is celebrated in the home but we're celebrating the birth of a homeless child.

People buy things in the hope that it will make them feel better," said Blair. "It gives you a momentary boost, just buying it, but not for long. It's just a stupid dopamine hit whereby I tell you things are going to be great and you fantasize that they are and you feel better.

If you weren't an extrovert, if you weren't shoving yourself out into the open all the time, posting selfies everywhere, demanding attention, talking constantly, people just gazed right past you. You got overlooked. And normally she didn't mind.

But sometimes she felt the world wasn't built for people like her. Confident, big-personality people like Surinder simply didn't understand. If you weren't an extrovert, if you weren't shoving yourself out into the open all the time, posting selfies everywhere, demanding attention, talking constantly, people just gazed right past you. You got overlooked. And normally she didn't mind.

Porque um dia com leitura é sempre um pouquinho melhor do que um dia sem leitura, e eu desejo a você uma infinidade de dias maravilhosos.

Quando ficava triste, os livros eram seu consolo; quando se sentia só, eles eram seus amigos. Eram eles que cuidavam do seu coração partido e a encorajavam a manter a esperança quando estava na pior.

Charm is just a way of fuckers getting you to do what they wanted you to do all along. They might as well hold a gun to your head. They're both shortcuts.