Quotes from 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.

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.

California is where you get to start over.

have noticed that people do not change which feature they lead with, any more than they change in character.

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.

When I left the room, Maria Thins was still standing in front of the painting.

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.

he was a collector rather than a hunter, buying his knowledge rather than seeking it with his own eyes and hands. I

I stood by the fire, everyone around me so cheerful, and thought what an odd creature I am – even I know that. Too much space and I'm frightened, too little and I'm frightened. There is indeed no comfortable place for me – I am too near the fire or too far away. Behind

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

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

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.

Everybody asks the same questions -- but they don't know that they ask the same questions.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Era un pensiero doloroso ma la verità lo è sovente.

They do not practise the art of conversation in quite the way the English do, but are straightforward to the point of bluntness.

It was no surprise that her sewing was so uneven, for to make even stiches the seamstress herself had to be steady. Abigail tended to hunch over her patchwork, her fingers and thread a snarl, and sew a few stiches before abandoning it to look down the road towards the houses near the general store, or to get up for a drink of water.