Quotes from Susan Wiggs

Teachers are by nature idealists, and they believe anything can be learned.

Talent is required, but much of writing is a matter of craft, which develops with time, attention, patience and practice, like playing an instrument or learning to dance.

A fresh eddy of sadness washed over Natalie, and she shuddered with emotional pain. When would the tears stop? When would the pain subside? It wasn't like a headache or illness that could be cured by swallowing a pill. No, this ache of missing and regret felt like a constant, incurable condition.

That's how it is with infants. The minute the pain's gone, so are the tears. If more people would do that, the world would be a happier place.

Do not fear death, but rather the unlived life. You don't have to live forever, you just have to live. —Tuck Everlasting

Wishful thinking is a powerful force.

Fear and love were sometimes the same thing both necessary unavoidable. Now she understood that it was okay to bleed if you know how to heal.

My adult life has been a patchwork of projects, most of which were fleeting fancies of overreaching vision. I tend to seize on things, only to abandon them due to a lack of time, talent or inclination.

And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.

It isn't fair, but maybe that's the whole point. Fairness has no part in real life, and she took that lesson away from the Hotel Angeline with her.

You have seven writers in your basement?" Donald nods, signing, "They like it here. There's a poet, a couple of novelists, an opera librettist, an essay writer . . . . They don't usually make much trouble.

I love you Daddy. How hard was that to say Why hadn't she said it before Because she wasn't sure she meant it or was she afraid it would be one-sided

An event in the present evokes past sensations. But science couldn't explain how a foolish heart had the power to overrule common sense.

Feed your friends, and their mouths will be too full to gossip, Bubbie used to say. Feed your enemies, and they'll become your friends.

She had always been good at dreaming, but what she had never done before was believe a dream could actually come true. She believed now. The wonder of setting sail created possibilities she had never considered before.

For memory, we use our imagination. We take a few strands of real time and carry them with us, then like an oyster we create a pearl around them. —John Banville

When she was very small, her mother used to tell her that books were alive in a special way. Between the covers, characters were living their lives, enacting their dramas, falling in and out of love, finding trouble, working out their problems. Even sitting closed on a shelf, a book had a life of its own. When someone opened the book, that was when the magic happened.

ear. "Listen, we have our health, and a roof over our heads, food to eat, and books to read. We're doing okay, kiddo.

I've always believed there's something magical about a book. A bundle of paper and ink that can change your life.

My really smart mom used to say there'd be things in life I don't like, but's that no reason to stop liking life.

A strange lightness enveloped her as she drove to her apartment, past the shady village green, the trendy shops and cafés and galleries and tasting rooms. Her favorite spot in town was the White Rabbit Bookstore with a sign over the door----FEED YOUR HEAD.

When tragedy strikes, I must remember to breathe until I get to the fun part again.

was gone, suddenly and irretrievably, like a zephyr shooting into the night sky, leaving a trail of moonlit particles that swirled in brief, unspeakable beauty, and then faded into nothing.

Scary thought - what if I get to know myself and I'm someone I don't want to be?