Quotes from Susan Wiggs

A fawn eats the equivalent of its body weight every twenty-four hours." "How do you know that?" "Read it in a book. I read sixty books last year." "Geez," he said. "Why?" "'Cause there wasn't time to read more," she said with a superior sniff. "Hard

heart—life had grace notes. These were moments so sweet that they could be tucked like the smallest of keepsakes, never to be forgotten. She

When a couple argued about money, it was never about money. It was about power and self-worth and judgment;

Appreciate the journey, and recognize your strength. —See the Triumph

Here, he felt like a stranger in a strange- and extremely seductive- land. In contrast to the places of his past, Bella Vista seemed weighted by a sense of permanence- the old country house with its courtyard and patios, the rustic stone barn and machine shop, outbuildings and weathered work sheds, the acres of age-gnarled apple trees, now covered in springtime blooms. He wondered what it would be like to watch the seasons change all in one place, year after year.

As the saying goes, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

I'm heading over to visit Tess for some tea and sympathy. I don't like tea, Ollie said. What's sympathy taste like? Natalie laughed and ruffled his hair, then got back in the car. Like a melted marshmallow with chocolate sauce.

I've always thought a quilt held together with a woman's tears to be the strongest of all.

Sometimes you have to let the right book find you

Blythe's favorite shelf near the coffee area. She'd labeled it W.O.W. (WORDS OF WISDOM) and it was stocked with her perennial favorites with bookmarked passages. Natalie used to love browsing that shelf. A book would never betray you or change its mind or make you feel stupid. She took down The Once and Future King and found a marked passage: The best thing for being sad, replied Merlyn, beginning to puff and blow, is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails.

How did you convince a whole town that their homegrown hero was a vicious rapist?

You still have a therapist. Always. And as you can probably tell, I like talking. Dr. Schneider's like a friend who charges by the hour. I'd be your friend for free.

Sometimes desperation can look a lot like bravery

They'd take Nina's hair tonight, leaving only enough to cover her scalp—the k.d. lang look, Jezebel explained. Paige would weave the hair, strand by strand, into a wig modeled after Nina's natural look. Sonnet nearly forgot to breathe, listening to Paige, whose eyes lit as she talked about her work.

Opening a book was like opening a door to another world, and once she stepped across the threshold, she was transported. When she was reading a story, she lived inside a different skin. She

I always took equal justice for granted. It was kind of a shock to realize how much depends on access to money and power.

The business is in trouble again because of the modern world. People are watching nonsense on their phones and ordering books online. If that keeps up, places like this might cease to exist. Apparently, he did have some understanding of the difficulties her mother had been having. Dorothy's face drained of color. No, she said. Bookstores are magic.

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.

I could tell you my adventures—beginning from this morning,' said Alice a little timidly: 'but it's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.

Passion for a pursuit was the best feeling.

The beauty of a strong, lasting commitment is often best understood by men incapable of it." —Murray Kempton

He was Odysseus one moment, the Ancient Mariner the next, an ordinary man like Tom Joad or a seeker like Douglas Adams's hitchhiker. He wandered in search of a past that existed only inside himself. He sought fields of flowers and towering cliffs that jutted out over the ocean and mountaintops that pierced the clouds.

Maybe you're not meant to remember the details. Just the feelings. Just the lessons. Just the love. pp274

We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face.