Wendy Webb > Quotes

“Before I lost my father, I never understood the rituals surrounding funerals: the wake, the service itself, the reception afterward,the dinners prepared by well-meaning friends and delivered in plastic containers, even the popular habit of making poster boards filled with photos of the dear departed. But now I know why we do those things. It's busywork, all of it. I had so much to take care of, so many arrangements to make, so many people to inform, I didn't have a moment to be engulfed by the ocean of grief that was lapping at my heels. Instead, I waded through the shallows, performing task after task, grateful to have duties to propel me forward.”
― Wendy Webb, The Tale of Halcyon Crane

“Everyone is haunted by something. A road not taken. A hurt, carried deep inside. Harsh words that echo long after the sting of them is carried away on the wind.”
― Wendy Webb, The Haunting of Brynn Wilder

“The truth finds its way into the light, no matter what you’ve done to contain it.”
― Wendy Webb, The Vanishing

“People get so caught up in themselves and their dramas, or they get ensnared in their own sorrows and tragedies, they forget to appreciate the beauty around them.”
― Wendy Webb, The Haunting of Brynn Wilder

“Reading for pleasure with nothing more important to do. What a delicious idea.”
― Wendy Webb, The Haunting of Brynn Wilder

“A century of souls inhabiting a place will leave an imprint that lingers long after they’re gone, and it lingered here. Not in a bad way. It felt well lived in.”
― Wendy Webb, The Haunting of Brynn Wilder

“sometimes you have to descend into the ridiculous during extremely stressful situations to prevent insanity from setting in.”
― Wendy Webb, The Haunting of Brynn Wilder

“But I will leave you with a word of warning. If ever a feeling of dread or foreboding overcomes you, and if ever you feel pulled to a place, inexplicably, the way I did, take heed. It may be trying to tell you—something wicked your way comes.”
― Wendy Webb, The End of Temperance Dare

“brief moment. Then it’s back down into the abyss.”
― Wendy Webb, The Haunting of Brynn Wilder

“Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil. —Aristotle”
― Wendy Webb, The End of Temperance Dare

“Joe alone was the keeper of those memories, and so many more like them, Tess thought. It was a great responsibility, holding all that history inside one’s head. An important vigil. Maybe that was why newer experiences faded as one neared the end of a long life. The brain simply couldn’t hold the lifetime of memories it had stored, and the most precious took precedence over those that came after. Who cared what he had for lunch the day before? His mind was otherwise occupied.”
― Wendy Webb, The Stroke of Winter

“the person who had loved me first and fiercest, my rock of steadfast support during every crazy and ill-advised decision I had ever made, my touchstone who made me laugh during good times and cried with me and shored me up during hard times, the woman whose wit and wisdom were razor sharp, would never open her eyes again and, soon, would not be alive on this earth any longer.”
― Wendy Webb, The Haunting of Brynn Wilder

“Teenaged girls have a way of holding fast to their illusions, even as those illusions are dissipating into the air. Denial of unpleasant reality is as powerful as the reality itself.”
― Wendy Webb, Daughters of the Lake

“Many people gravitate toward the negative, wrap themselves around it and define themselves by it, even when circumstances don’t warrant it. They’ve always got something to complain about, even when the sun is shining. But you mined the positive out of a day that contained a whole lot of strangeness. That’s difficult to do, and it shows what kind of person you are. It shows what your spirit is.”
― Wendy Webb, The Haunting of Brynn Wilder

“Over the course of one’s life, Julia, there are actions that pave the way for everything else that comes after, good or bad. Simple moments: Turning right instead of left on the street and running headlong into the man you’ll marry. Choosing a ham sandwich instead of soup at the deli and choking on it. Diving into a pool of water and cracking your head on the bottom, paralyzing yourself for life.”
― Wendy Webb, The Vanishing

“I think a person’s past, good or bad, idyllic or horrific, shapes who they are,” I said. “But I don’t believe it defines them.” He”
― Wendy Webb, The Haunting of Brynn Wilder

“Time and experience have a funny way of altering one’s recollections of the past.”
― Wendy Webb, The Vanishing

“It illustrated the point that love is love is love.”
― Wendy Webb, The Haunting of Brynn Wilder

“The Widow’s House, The Library of Light and Shadow, or The Queen’s Vow.”
― Wendy Webb, Daughters of the Lake

“saw my great-grandfather”
― Wendy Webb, Daughters of the Lake

“This is what life is for. This is why we are here. To find the person who can bring our souls to life.”
― Wendy Webb, The Haunting of Brynn Wilder

“SISU.” It’s a Finnish word that doesn’t have a complete translation in English. It represents the zeitgeist of the Finnish people—strength, determination, bravery, courage, fortitude, perseverance. If you have sisu, it means you will not just handle but triumph over anything life throws at you.”
― Wendy Webb, The Haunting of Brynn Wilder

“When my mother died, I was not only washed away in the tsunami of grief, but I was also consumed with the utter blackness and fear that descended when I thought about her simply not being there, or anywhere, any longer. That the powerful spirit that was my mother was just . . . gone. And, when my time came, would I be gone, too? Would I be nowhere?”
― Wendy Webb, The Haunting of Brynn Wilder

“It stands to reason, if stress and sadness take it away, laughter can give it back.”
― Wendy Webb, The Haunting of Brynn Wilder

“You didn’t!” Simon hooted. “That’s so Alexis Carrington in Dynasty of you.”
― Wendy Webb, Daughters of the Lake

“Be at peace, wonderful lady,” he said. “You will leave this earth better than you found it. That is all any of us can ask.”
― Wendy Webb, The Haunting of Brynn Wilder

“When Addie discovered she herself was expecting a child,”
― Wendy Webb, Daughters of the Lake

“He put his hands on my arms and squeezed. “Yes. And before the night is through, I’m afraid we’re going to come face to face with it. But I’ll promise you something. You—Eleanor Harper—will get out of this alive and unscathed. I am in this house now and I’m not going anywhere. There’s nothing in heaven or, more precisely, hell that will harm you while I am here. I would lay down my life to protect you.” His eyes twinkled. “Of course, that’s sort of an empty statement, considering.”
I managed a smile. “The thought’s nice, anyway.”
― Wendy Webb, The End of Temperance Dare

“He backed me into the wall and kissed me with a force, an urgency, a passion that took my breath away. This wasn’t just a flirty kiss. It was serious business.”
― Wendy Webb, The Haunting of Brynn Wilder

“What do they say?” I managed to squeak out, wishing he would just keep talking. He laughed. “Don’t you know? It’s haunted.”
― Wendy Webb, The Haunting of Brynn Wilder