The Red Garden Quotes

“She liked to disappear, even when she was in the same room as other people. It was a talent, as it was a curse.”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“They say that dogs may dream, and when Topsy was old, his feet would move in his sleep. With his eyes closed he would often make a noise that sounded quite human, as if greeting someone in his dreams. At first it seemed that he believed Sara would return, but as the years went by I understood that his loyalty asked for no reward, and that love comes in unexpected forms. His wish was small, as hers had been -- merely to be beside her. As for me, I already knew I would never get what I wanted.”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“She said she wanted a man like that, someone who understood sorrow, not someone who caused it.”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“She slept beneath a tree that night, sitting upright. She imagined she would have been scared for her life out in the open, for she was often terrified in her own room at home, even after double-locking the windows and covering the glass with quilts. Instead, she felt an odd calm spirit here in the wilderness. Was this the way people felt at the instant they leapt into rivers and streams? Was it like this when you fell in love, stood on the train tracks, went to a country where no one spoke your language? That was the country she was in most of the time, a place where people heard what she said but not what she meant. She wanted to be known, but no one knew her.”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“The sisters were glad to be together. They had the easy sort of relationship where they didn't have to speak to be understood.”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“She had the feeling that if she went home, she might never get away. She thought of birds caught in nets. There was something inside her, beating against her ribs, urging her to do things she might not otherwise attempt. She had the strongest desire to get lost.”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“a woman who could rescue herself was a woman who would never be in need.”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“The only way to fight evil is with joy,”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“...make you want things you hadn't even known existed.”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“a place where people heard what she said but not what she meant. She wanted to be known, but no one knew her.”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“But children can tell when love has been lost, they know when silence means peace and when it's a sign of despair.”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“Don't worry. I'm not afraid of words.”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“Hard times make for simple minds,”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“Who but a fool would stay in one place and butt her head against the same window time and again?”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“She wondered if dreamers knew they were in a dream while it was happening, or if they had no idea that everything around them was purely imagined until the dream had gone.”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“He dreamed of a time when there were trees everywhere instead of houses.”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“She wanted to be known, but no one knew her.”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“Let her wake as when she close her eyes. That was all Jenny asked for. That was all she begged for on this March night that was perfectly equal to the day, unique in all the season. Let her be the same sweet girl, unburdened by gifts or sorrow.”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“I fear myself more than I fear any bear,' Emily blurted. It was the way she'd felt in her aloneness, the comfort she took in being on the mountain.”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“She kissed him first, and all the rest followed.”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“She liked to disappear, even when she was in the same room as other people. It was a talent, as it was a curse. There was something that come between Emily and other people, a white linen curtain, hazy. It made the world quieter and farther away, although occasionally she could see through to the other side.”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“That spring he found the old bear, dead, in one of the caves. He slept beside the body. He dreamed the bear was his father. That was when he gave up being human. He gave her up as well.”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“There was something that came between Emily and other people, a white linen curtain, hazy.”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“He had no idea that the universe could be found in a single instant, a drop of water, a blade of grass, a leaf of an apple tree.”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“She liked to disappear. Even when she was in the same room as other people. It was a talent, as it was a curse.”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“Sara had told me that a woman who could rescue herself was a woman who would never be in need.”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“Life is a tragedy.”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“When she'd been married she had been too busy to notice that the world was beautiful. Or perhaps she'd known and had forgotten.”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“The strangest thing about her was the way she gazed out the window, as if there was someplace she wanted to be, some other life that was more worth living.”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden

“Swedenborg, the Christian mystic, and the sentiment of charity as divine spoke deeply to him. He felt swept up in something far bigger than himself.”
― Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden