Everything My Mother Taught Me Quotes

“I was so unaccustomed to such emotions it took some time before I realized I was happy.”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“I abolished all language on the day of my father’s funeral. I did it to honor my father and outrage my mother, who slapped me when I refused to answer her. Let her, I thought. She still couldn’t make me cry.”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“As the summer passed, I began to feel free. I had time to myself, and I enjoyed watching over the children. I felt a sort of joy I’d never felt before. I was so unaccustomed to such emotions it took some time before I realized I was happy.”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“Did you want something?” she would ask. Yes, I felt like saying. A mother.”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“You could grow to love something so strong and elemental, but you'd have to value the beauty of it more than you did your own life.”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“When men were interested, they had a faraway look, as if they were trying to figure out their attraction. Was it a dream, or was it real? Did they want a woman, body and soul, or was it only the body that appealed to them? Sometimes it took them a while to figure it out, sometimes only minutes.”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“She had told me often enough to keep my mouth shut, and now I did exactly that. I abolished all language on the day of my father’s funeral.”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“they”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“She was the sort of person who saw only herself and her shadow, and the rest of us disappeared in the bright sunlight.”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“She was pretty, but you had to search for her beauty, which was hidden in her kind eyes.”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“had honored my father and had done right by his memory, and now I was ready to speak.”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“I went to sit by the shore so I could have my privacy. I’d recognized the handwriting from the recipes she’d written out for my mother. Now I knew there was still someone in the world who cared for me.”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“She feared the man who crept into her bed early in the morning, when he was done with my mother. She would have to do away with herself in order to have a life of her own.”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“Why, she has beautiful handwriting!” Charlotte Fuller said. “She’s good at many things,” Julia said matter-of-factly. It was the nicest thing anyone had ever said about me.”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“But I remembered what my father had told me. You could grow to love something so strong and elemental, but you’d have to value the beauty of it more than you did your own life.”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“You think your ma could have a baby in a rowboat?” young Rowan asked me. I shrugged and said nothing. A woman like my mother shouldn’t have children.”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“She began to look like someone else—perhaps the person she’d once been.”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“Rowan wasn’t always like this,” she told me. I guessed that he probably had been, but she hadn’t wanted to see. “But he’s like this now,” she finally said.”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“felt a sort of joy I’d never felt before. I was so unaccustomed to such emotions it took some time before I realized I was happy.”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“You could grow to love something so strong and elemental, but you’d have to value the beauty of it more than you did your own life.”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“was a spectacular and lonely landscape that I wished my father could see. I wished he could take off his shoes and climb over the rocks and wave to me and that he would be here in this world once again, if only for a few hours.”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“The sea was a dangerous enemy, and we were surrounded by it. But I remembered what my father had told me. You could grow to love something so strong and elemental, but you’d have to value the beauty of it more than you did your own life.”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“was alone with my father when it happened, a quiet death, with no complaints. He told me I was the light of his life and that I must look after my mother when he was gone. Afterward, I sat beside him and wept.”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“Don’t you tell your father a thing,” she’d warn me. “It would kill him. You’d do better if you kept your mouth shut.”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“She acted as though I were a stranger when I appeared. “Did you want something?” she would ask. Yes, I felt like saying. A mother.”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“She had ruined my father’s life, and mine, and she didn’t seem to notice. She was the sort of person who saw only herself and her shadow, and the rest of us disappeared in the bright sunlight.”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“There are those who insist that mothers are born with love for their children and place them before all other things, including their own needs and desires. This was not the case with us.”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“She would have to do away with herself in order to have a life of her own.”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“I was so unaccustomed to such emotions it took some time before I realized I was happy. The sea was ever changing, ever interesting,”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me

“I didn’t know if I could speak even if I tried.”
― Alice Hoffman, Everything My Mother Taught Me