The Library of Lost and Found Quotes

“You should always make time for books”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“She decided that she wasn't going to focus on always trying to please others. She felt determined to take the time to get to know, and love, herself. And she hoped that the warm glow of appreciation she always looked for might actually come from within.”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“Sometimes there's no right decision. Just the one you make at the time.”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“You’re never too old for stories, she thought.”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“Three failed marriages are rather a lot, Martha observed........ I don't think they failed....they were reasonably happy ones. Why does something have to last forever to be classed as successful? Surely it's ok to give things a try.”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“As she read, she felt she was giving this story a new life of its own. It was no longer a reflection of her childhood and whatever happened within the Storm family. It was just a story, to be shared and enjoyed.”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“Why does something have to last forever to be classed as successful? Surely it's okay to give things a try.”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“When Martha stepped inside the library, she closed her eyes and inhaled the earthy, almond scent of the books. If she could bottle the aroma, she'd wear it as a perfume, L'eau de la Bibliotheque.”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“Sometimes there’s no right decision. Just the one you make at the time,”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“They set off and drove up and along Maltsborough road to the sound of AC/DC, played volume level two and a half.”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“You're still the same people, underneath.”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“the woodcutter was forever full of regret, because he had taken a beautiful thing and tried to turn it into something else.”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“That's all in the past now," she soothed. "We can spend what time we have together, wishing we'd done things differently. Or we can use it wisely.”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“She wasn't going to spend time thinking about her family. For the first time in her life, she was going to think about herself.”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“She had a purpose, an anchor. And now that was gone. She'd tried to make changes to her life and they hadn't worked.”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“She felt a hollowness inside like nothing she'd felt before, as if her innards had been scooped out. Her skin felt raw and paper-thin. "Everyone lied to me," she cried.”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“But what about love?" Martha asked desperately.
"It's not always enough. Life's not a fairy story.”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“She was so tired of being in the middle, trying to calm a storm.”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“Real friends wouldn't do that," he said. "They might be different, they might not mix, but they would never make you choose.”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“Will returning all these things take away my purpose? If I'm not offering to help people out, what will I do instead?”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“The house was a mess and it had to change. She had to change.”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“She also knew that no one else was making her feel this way. She was doing it to herself.”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“She'd lost the ability to process a compliment. If someone said anything nice to her, by the time she'd mused over the conundrum of what it really meant and how to reply, the moment had passed.”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“He was the opposite to her, a calm, chilled man who let worries and stress flow over him like a trickling brook. And she was the one who scurried, made lists and was forever busy. He encouraged her to be the person she wanted to be.”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“As a younger woman, she'd always imagined her life with children in it. She'd never pictured an alternative.”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“She was beginning to realize that it was impossible to remember everything about a person from the past. You formed your own idealized picture of them, rather than accurate one.”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“Not wanting to help was an alien feeling to her and she was finding it intriguing, something she wanted to experiment with further.”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“Her heart still pulsated at cheesy vampire romances and teen dystopian adventures. She was partial to a good biography, particularly by ageing but still glamorous film stars, though never ones by reality TV stars or footballers. Her back chilled when she turned the pages of thrillers with spiky orange capital letters and she brushed away tears after reading misery memoirs. She couldn't understand library-goers who turned their noses up at commercial books, announcing that they only enjoyed literary reads. To her, authors should write what they wanted and readers had their pick of thousands of books to enjoy.”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“It's a shame we have to grow up, isn't it? When you're a kid, you never question if a man can really turn into a frog, or if a girl can be the size of a thimble.”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found

“Just because she believed in fairy tales when she was small didn't mean they came true.”
― Phaedra Patrick, The Library of Lost and Found