"I even love the smell of books."
— Adriana Trigiani

"...I've made it my business to observe fathers and daughters. And I've seen some incredible, beautiful things. Like the little girl who's not very cute - her teeth are funny, and her hair doesn't grow right, and she's got on thick glasses - but her father holds her hand and walks with her like she's a tiny angel that no one can touch. He gives her the best gift a woman can get in this world: protection. And the little girl learns to trust the man in her life. And all the things that the world expects from women - to be beautiful, to soothe the troubled spirit, heal the sick, care for the dying, send the greeting card, bake the cake - allof those things become the way we pay the father back for protecting us..."
— Adriana Trigiani (Big Stone Gap)

"When a girl is beautiful, she gets to pick - she never has to wait for someone to choose her."
— Adriana Trigiani

"My mother was an avid reader...She loved books about romance. Books that took place in faraway places and times. Stories with costumes..."
— Adriana Trigiani

"“Mom, how do you know if the guy is the guy?”
“You mean if he’ll be a good husband?” She pauses, then says “The ticket is for the man to love the woman more than she loves him.”
“Shouldn’t it be equal?”
Mom cackles. “It can never be equal.”
“But what if the woman loves the man more?”
“A life of hell awaits her. As women, the deck is stacked against us because time is our enemy. We age, while men season. And trust me, there are plenty of woman out there looking for a man, and they don’t mind staking a claim on somebody else’s husband, no matter how old, creaky, and deaf they are.”
"
— Adriana Trigiani (Very Valentine)

"“ ‘I love you , Valentine’ is actually a popular phrase used in greeting cards.”
“If you were sending me one, what would it say?” he asks.
“I love you, too, Roman.”
And there it is, words that I dread to say and do mean, because with them comes the responsibility of owning it, moving forward together and deciding for real who we are to each other. Now we’re not just lovers discovering what we like and sharing what we know. In this mutual declaration, we’re accountable to each other. We’re in love, and now, our relationship has to build slowly and beautifully in order to hold all the joy and misery that lies ahead.
"
— Adriana Trigiani (Very Valentine)

"“When I observe Gram, I see how fragile the notion of tradition can be. If I take my eyes off the way she kneads her Easter bread, or if I fail to study the way she sews a seam in suede, or if I lose the mental image I have of her when she negotiates a better deal with a button salesman, somehow, the very essence of her will be lost. When she goes, the responsibility for carrying on will fall to me. My mother says I’m the keeper of the flame, because I work here, and because I choose to live here. A flame is a very fragile thing, too, and there are times when I wonder if I’m the on who can keep it going.”
"
— Adriana Trigiani

"I have been a joy to live with all spring: Upbeat, warm and tender, uncomplicated, and loving. I am no trouble at all. You could press me into dough and make sugar cookies out of me, I've been so sweet."
— Adriana Trigiani (Big Cherry Holler)

"All the things I thought I was - simple and plain and sometime funny - are very small words. They do not begin to describe me. They do not begin to express what is inside of me. I have value, and I have worth. I cannot be replaced like old shoes or taken for granted like tap water."
— Adriana Trigiani (Big Cherry Holler)

"Isn't this the truth of any good mother? That in all of our lives. We worry only about those we brought into this world, regardless of whether they loved us back or treated us fairly or understood our shortcomings."
— Adriana Trigiani (Big Cherry Holler)

"Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved"
— Adriana Trigiani (Big Stone Gap)

"People have often told me that one of their strongest childhood memories is the scent of their grandmother's house. I never knew my grandmothers, but I could always count of the Bookmobile."
— Adriana Trigiani (Big Stone Gap)