Adriana Trigiani
The 'Story of Silent Night', which was given to me one Christmas when I was six - it was the story of a down and out composer who had no ideas left, and it was Christmas, and he came up with the hymn 'Silent Night.'Collection: Christmas
There is no one on earth who knew you from the day you were born; who knew why you cried, or when you'd had enough food; who knew exactly what to say when you were hurting; and who encouraged you to grow a good heart. When that layer goes, whatever is left of your childhood goes with her.Collection: Food
You never know when some small thing will lead to a big idea. Travel is very inspirational - but it's in the ordinary that I find my themes of love and work and family.Collection: Family
That's when you know for sure somebody loves you. They figure out what you need and they give it to you - without you asking.Collection: Sweet
A good mother is irreplaceable.Collection: Mom
No one worries about you like your mother, and when she is gone, the world seems unsafe, things that happen unwieldy. You cannot turn to her anymore, and it changes your life forever. There is no one on earth who knew you from the day you were born; who knew why you cried, or when you'd had enough food; who knew exactly what to say when you were hurting; and who encouraged you to grow a good heart. When that layer goes, whatever is left of your childhood goes with her.Collection: Mother
But what Mom never told me is that along the way, you find sisters, and they find you. Girls are cool that way.Collection: Sister
All the things I thought I was - simple and plain and sometime funny - are very small words. They do not begin to describe me. They do not begin to express what is inside of me. I have value, and I have worth. I cannot be replaced like old shoes or taken for granted like tap water.Collection: Taken
Let life unfold, say what you mean. You can’t always think about what you’ve lost, or what you don’t have, or what you didn’t get. Because when you do that, you’re missing out on the now. You can’t know if you’ll be here tomorrow or a year from now.Collection: Mean
When people are filled to the brim with love, they are their most beautiful.Collection: Beautiful
I like it when my mother smiles. And I especially like it when I make her smile.Collection: Smile
We hang out, we help one another, we tell one another our worst fears and biggest secrets, and then just like real sisters, we listen and don't judge.Collection: Sister
Art makes the spirit soar. And when the spirit is lifted, life follows.Collection: Art
Motherhood changes everything.Collection: Mom
Isn't this the truth of any good mother? That in all of our lives. We worry only about those we brought into this world, regardless of whether they loved us back or treated us fairly or understood our shortcomings.Collection: Mom
The good things that happen to us were meant to happen, and the bad things that happen are lessons meant to teach us to be better.Collection: Lessons
When a girl is beautiful, she gets to pick - she never has to wait for someone to choose her.Collection: Beautiful
Sometimes we get our hearts broken, only to have the right person come along to mend them.Collection: Heart
Love has a funny way of showing up when you aren't looking for it and didn't plan on it.Collection: Way
I even love the smell of books.Collection: Book
People have often told me that one of their strongest childhood memories is the scent of their grandmother's house. I never knew my grandmothers, but I could always count of the Bookmobile.Collection: Memories
It's the secret to happiness, you know. Only take what you need.Collection: Secret
A practical girl never pines; she takes action.Collection: Girl
Beware the things of this world that can mean everything or nothing.Collection: Mean
A handwritten letter carries a lot of risk. It's a one-sided conversation that reveals the truth of the writer. Furthermore, the writer is not there to see the reaction of the person he writes to, so there's a great unknown to the process that requires a leap of faith. The writer has to choose the right words to express his sentences, and then, once he has sealed the envelope, he has to place those thoughts in the hands of someone else, trusting that the feelings will be delivered, and that the recipient will understand the writer's intent. How childish to think that could be easy.Collection: Writing
For a woman, love is the highest dream, and if a man promises to build a ladder tall enough to reach it, she believes him, hikes up her skirt, and follows him to the stars.Collection: Dream
This is one of those times when explaining a feeling cannot measure up to actually having the feelingCollection: Feelings
This is where men and women are different, we can put aside petty competition for relationships - they can't. It interferes.Collection: Men
And so, when I was a young writer I always worked hard on imagery, and I knew that the roots of imagery were the senses - and that if my readers could feel, taste and see what I was talking about, I would be able to tell them a story.Collection: Talking
I love actors and I love to create an environment where they feel safe to connect and thrive and try things, to fail and succeed and flourish and fly.Collection: Trying
I will probably always cry myself to sleep, but knowing this, someday the tears won't be sad, or filled with regret. Maybe they will be joyfulCollection: Regret
The only urgent thing in life is the pursuit of love. You get that one right, and you've solved the mystery.Collection: Love You
If you look around to find meaning in everything that happens, you will end up disappointed. Sometimes there aren’t reasons behind the terrible things that go on. I ask myself, If I knew all the answers, would it help? I lie awake and wonder why I don’t have parents and wonder what will become of my brother and me. But when the morning comes, I realize that there’s nothing to be done about what has already happened. I can only get up and do my chores and push through the day and find the good in it.Collection: Morning
Having a purpose is the little secret of the nonpretties. Something to do always beats something to look at.Collection: Secret
The Wise County Bookmobile is one of the most beautiful sights in the world to me. When I see it lumbering down the mountain road like a tank . . . I flag it down like an old friend. I've waited on this corner every Friday since I can remember. The Bookmobile is just a government truck, but to me it's a glittering royal coach delivering stories and knowledge and life itself. I even love the smell of books. People have often told me that one of their strongest childhood memories is the scent of their grandmother's house. I never knew my grandmothers, but I could always count on the Bookmobile.Collection: Beautiful
My mother was an avid readerShe loved books about romance. Books that took place in faraway places and times. Stories with costumesCollection: Mother
Looking back, now, I realize that you only ever need one person who lights up that way when you enter a room. One person is all it takes to give a kid confidence.Collection: Kids
Maybe a first love exists to reaffirm the best parts of yourself, the choices you made when you didn't worry about the consequences. Maybe a first love exists to remind you to be brave in the moment, to stand up for your feelings, instead of shrinking back in the face of potential loneliness.Collection: Loneliness
A library is a home filled with our stories. On every shelf, we see ourselves, experience our collective conscious, describe our dreams and our great longing for times that have passed, the sterling moment of the present and the glorious future known only in our imaginations.Collection: Dream
And when you clear away the cobwebs of the description of every job in the world, at the bottom of that job is service. It's service. And I took that ethic and applied it to my writing craft.Collection: Jobs
I used to believe my art had to be about the things that brought me joy and gave me hope. But I learned that art can be found in all of life, even in pain.Collection: Art
I'm writing novels because I found something I love because I tried it. Don't be afraid to shake it up.Collection: Writing
Pomegranate Soup is glorious, daring and delightful. I adored the Iranian sisters, Marjan, Bahar and Layla, who are looking to build a life, start a business and find love in a place so far from home. Ireland has never been more beautiful - the perfect setting for this story filled with humor, hope and possibility.Collection: Beautiful
Writing comedy is the greatest spiritual gift you can give to anybody anytime.Collection: Spiritual
If there is one thing I hope my books do always and forever, its that they honor working people.Collection: Book
Energy has to be fed from a source. If you don't feed the source, it dissipates entirely.Same is true of liking a boy. If you cut off the thoughts, if you stop pinning, you're free to find a boy who is attainable.Collection: Cutting
Women move through the world never knowing their power.Collection: Moving
I have been a joy to live with all spring: Upbeat, warm and tender, uncomplicated, and loving. I am no trouble at all. You could press me into dough and make sugar cookies out of me, I've been so sweet.Collection: Sweet
Two different things. Work is survival, and love sustains you. You have work anytime. But love? Not always.Collection: Two
The wedding vows are a license to be a complete jerk, with full knowledge that the person you married has agreed, no matter how large a horse's ass you are, to stay by your side until death. A fool could tell you this is a bad deal.Collection: Horse