Quotes from Helen Humphreys

Emily Williamson never thought she would find commitment so liberating, that her conviction to her cause could promote such happiness within her. She stands in the London sunshine, watching Mrs. Phillips model as a heron, and she feels nothing but gratitude and wonder at the beauty of life.

She doesn't want to think of that woman, not now. She's just one more person who hasn't kept her promise; just one more person who hasn't returned to Harriet.

The good thing about books is that they remain themselves. What happens in their pages stays there. Harriet does not like the idea of the story bleeding through into real life. She trusts a story, and doesn't trust real life. But what makes her trust a story is the knowledge that it will stay where it is, that she can visit it but that there is no chance it will visit her.

Each little flower has a history and cultural references, is a superstition or a cure for something.

It is not as though she's greedy for happiness, but she wishes that she'd been able to recognize it completely when she had it.