Quotes from Alice Hoffman

She heard her mother tell her that when you were loved by someone, you never lost them, no matter what might happen next. Despite the curse, despite the losses you might endure, she knew now that love was the only thing that lasted. It was inside you and with you for all eternity.

She had been grief stricken as her father lay dying but now she felt weightless, the way people do when they're no longer sure they have a reason to be connected to this world.

what you give up you can learn to live without, even if it causes you heartbreak at the start. Whether you are mortal or not, you go on, even if sorrow nags

Sally went off, surprised that she could no longer pick up the scent of water as witches always could. There was always a price to pay, she knew that. You didn't have to be cursed in love to know that when you loved someone you were open to great loss.

Should I judge myself?" she ventured to ask. "Or should I leave that to the Almighty, who forgives us all for being what He made us?

He wasn't the first man she'd been with, and that hadn't been Bill back home either. It had been a boy she met on holiday when she was fifteen. She had decided it was time for her to have sex, the way someone else might decide it was time to get a driver's license, and she'd gone ahead with it. Pragmatic, that's the way she'd always been.

In their estimation Gillian was young and stupid and would get herself pregnant in record time—all the prerequisites for a miserable and ordinary life.

I wondered if damaged people ever got over what damaged them.

Claire's dog and the cat Elv had rescued from the river had a strange alliance. When they thought no one was at home, they sat together on the couch by the window, peering out at the courtyard. As soon as the key turned in the door, they jumped off the couch so that no one would see their attachment. Dogs and cats had their secrets too.

I thought perhaps it was more important to listen than to be heard.

It was the time when the field mice ventured out, after the hawks had settled in the trees but before the owls came to hunt. The sky was now the color Elv liked best - a tender dark blue, falling to earth like ashes.

No matter what, the past would follow around. A sorry soul that only grew heavier in each town. She couldn't run away.