The Apple Orchard Quotes

“And if you don't believe memories are worth more than money, then perhaps you've not made the right kind of memories.”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“Feed your friends, and their mouths will be too full to gossip, Bubbie used to say. Feed your enemies, and they’ll become your friends.”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“She loved old things. The brown-brick place was a survivor of the 1907 earthquake and fire, and proudly bore a plaque from the historical society. The building had a haunted history- it was the site of a crime of passion- but Tess didn't mind. She'd never been superstitious.
The apartment was filled with items she'd collected through the years, simply because she liked them or was intrigued by them. There was a balance between heirloom and kitsch. The common thread seemed to be that each object had a story, like a pottery jug with a bas-relief love story told in pictures, in which she'd found a note reading, "Long may we run. -Gilbert." Or the antique clock on the living room wall, each of its carved figures modeled after one of the clockmaker's twelve children. She favored the unusual, so long as it appeared to have been treasured by someone, once upon a time. Her mail spilled from an antique box containing a pigeon-racing counter with a brass plate engraved from a father to a son. She hung her huge handbag on a wrought iron finial from a town library that had burned and been rebuilt in a matter of weeks by an entire community.
Other people's treasures captivated her. They always had, steeped in hidden history, bearing the nicks and gouges and fingerprints of previous owners. She'd probably developed the affinity from spending so much of her childhood in her grandmother's antique shop.”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“Sometimes the true value of the piece is how much a person loves it.”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“What a joy life is when you have made a close working partnership with Nature, helping her to produce for the benefit of mankind new forms, colors, and perfumes in flowers which were never known before; fruits in form, size, and flavor never before seen on this globe." -Luther Burbank.”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“You can't rewind life or undo things.”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“Nobody can fix another person. But everybody tries.”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“Dreams changed a person, and there was a little danger in that, because having a powerful dream made you vulnerable to failure and disappointment.”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“She was starting to see that there was nothing wrong with sometimes letting the day unfold according to its own rhythm.”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“Falling for him was too easy. Falling in general was easy. It was the landing you had to watch out for.”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“He was the worst kind of liar, the kind who took hearts as hostages and broke them with impunity.”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“Survival was a powerful driving force, stronger than hatred and love combined.”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“When she returned to Bella Vista, she discovered Isabel in her manic-baking mode. The kitchen was filled with the aromas of butter, vanilla and cinnamon. She'd created Danishes and rugelach and crispy twisty things that promised to glue themselves promptly to Tess's hips.”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“Language, Sweet," said Magnus's mother, arriving with a plate full of homemade biscuits. She didn't scold him too harshly about his talk these days. Magnus suspected this was because Mama shared Uncle Sweet's opinion about the Nazis. Yet despite the shortages and rationing, she had managed to turn out the most delicious biscuits Magnus had ever tasted. They were redolent of butter, which Mrs. Gundersen up the hill traded for apples from the family orchard.
Uncle Sweet made a great show of fanning himself and swooning as he ate a biscuit. "Language," he said, "is nothing but a bunch of words, and there are no words to express how wonderful this cookie is. I swear, if you were not already married, I would have you locked in a workroom like Rumpelstiltskin's daughter, forced to bake for me all day." He stole another biscuit from the platter and headed for the basement, lighting his way with an oil lamp. No one ever asked where his photographic chemicals came from- no one wanted to hold the answer like a piece of stolen fruit.”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“There, a simple headstone marked the grave of Eva Saloman Johansen, "beloved wife and grandmother." Tess was intrigued to see a phrase in Hebrew characters. Her paternal grandmother had apparently been Jewish. Beside that was a marker for Erik Karl Johansen, inscribed, 'Measure his life not by its length but by the depths of joy he brought us. He jumped into life and never touched bottom. We will never laugh the same again.”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“Of course his name would be Dominic. It meant "gift from God." AKA a life-support system for an ego. Still, that didn't mean he wasn't fun to stare at. Dominic Rossi looked like a dream, the kind of dream no woman in her right mind would want to wake from.
She had always been susceptible to male beauty, ever since the age of ten, when her mother had taken her to see Michelangelo's David in Florence. She recalled staring at that huge stone behemoth, all lithe muscles and gorgeous symmetry, indifferent about his nudity, his member inspiring a dozen questions her mother brushed aside.”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“What a joy life is when you have made a close working partnership with Nature, helping her to produce for the benefit of mankind new forms, colors, and perfumes in flowers which were never known before; fruits in form, size, and flavor never before seen on this globe.”—Luther Burbank. “It’s the”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“BACKYARD GARDEN SALAD In wartime, patriotic families cultivated “Victory Gardens” to promote self-sufficiency and help the war effort. 4 cups mixed greens 1/4 cup fresh sprigs of dill 1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves 4 large basil leaves, rolled up and thinly sliced crosswise 1 large lemon, halved 1/4 cup fruity olive oil pinch of salt fresh ground black pepper to taste 1 cup toasted walnuts 3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese 1 cup fresh edible flowers; choose from bachelor’s buttons, borage, calendulas, carnations, herb flowers (basil, chives, rosemary, thyme), nasturtiums, violas, including pansies and Johnny-jump-ups, stock Toss salad greens and herbs in a large bowl. Squeeze lemon juice (without the seeds) over the greens and season with olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss again. Add walnuts and feta and toss well. Divide salad and pansies among four serving plates and serve. (Source: Adapted from California Bountiful)”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“You can’t rewind life or undo things.”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“Eight”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“going”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“brisk”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“each”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“around her old-fashioned kitchen, Miss Winther would pause”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“And coming back to the city taught her that there was no such thing as a life of unmitigated happiness. What she knew now was that life was made up of moments, and some of those moments were filled with joy, some with anger, some with sadness. The hope was that at the end of the day, there would be balance—the light and dark, sorrow and gladness.”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“In place of the youngster he’d once been was an angry, cynical young man made dangerous by the fact that he had nothing more to lose. In destroying an innocent boy, the Germans had unwittingly created their own worst enemy.”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“Magnus didn’t understand the Germans’ special hatred for Jewish people. They were just people, after all.”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“I remember she told me she could either spend her time working on a scrapbook about her life, or actually living her life. And she chose to live her life.”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“Not a rule, but a reminder. We must live this day. We’ll never get to live it again.”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard

“When nature drew a creature to sweetness, there could be no stopping it.”
― Susan Wiggs, The Apple Orchard