Top 100 Susan Wiggs Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “There can be no fooling ourselves into thinking this is something other than what it is – the willful ejection of Molly from our nest. It’s too late for second thoughts, anyway. She has to be moved into her dorm in time for freshman orientation. It’s been marked on the kitchen calendar for weeks – the expiration date on her childhood.”

— Susan Wiggs

52. “It is a great virtue to be needed. Greater, even, than being liked.”

— Susan Wiggs

53. “My adult life has been a patchwork of projects, most of which were fleeting fancies of overreaching vision. I tend to seize on things, only to abandon them due to a lack of time, talent or inclination.”

— Susan Wiggs

54. “All arguments, at their core, were about power. Who had it. Who wanted it. Who would surrender. Who would prevail.”

— Susan Wiggs

55. “Sometimes life shoves you off into the unknown, and it turns out to be amazing.”

— Susan Wiggs

56. “An event in the present evokes past sensations. But science couldn’t explain how a foolish heart had the power to overrule common sense.”

— Susan Wiggs

57. “Already, Seattle is taking hold of her. She still holds Sedona in the dry tan of her skin and in her hair, but the fine mist of the Northwest is making its way to places she didn’t know were parched.”

— Susan Wiggs

58. “I’ve always loved writing emotionally rich, character-driven novels that explore the way people fall in love and deal with life’s triumphs and tragedies. I enjoy writing the contemporary and historical books equally, though perhaps ‘enjoy’ is the wrong word.”

— Susan Wiggs

59. “There was something elemental and, all right, fundamentally sexy, about a guy building a fire for a woman. Maybe it went back to caveman times. She felt a natural attraction to a man with the instinct to make a fire for her.”

— Susan Wiggs

60. “You’re right. I have no heart because I lost it to you.”

— Susan Wiggs

61. “Aw, Gran.” Annie had been fighting tears from the moment she’d boarded the train from New York. “Please don’t leave me.” “I won’t,” she said with a gentle smile. “Keep me in your heart, and you’ll always know where to find me.”

— Susan Wiggs

62. “I never felt I was incapable of succeeding because I felt confident I could always learn what I needed to know.”

— Susan Wiggs

63. “A fawn eats the equivalent of its body weight every twenty-four hours.” “How do you know that?” “Read it in a book. I read sixty books last year.” “Geez,” he said. “Why?” “’Cause there wasn’t time to read more,” she said with a superior sniff. “Hard.”

— Susan Wiggs

64. “That’s how it is with infants. The minute the pain’s gone, so are the tears. If more people would do that, the world would be a happier place.”

— Susan Wiggs

65. “Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said, “America’s greatest contribution to the world is the summer camp.” Anyone.”

— Susan Wiggs

66. “The pressure of his mouth eased. He drew away, holding her at arm’s length. He filled her vision, broad shoulders and shaggy head framed by the crags and cliffs of Connemara. He had a look of astonished delight on his face, while dangerous banked fires smoldered in his eyes. Still gripping her shoulders, he stepped back and said, “Look me in the eye, Caitlin MacBride, and tell me you’ve been kissed before.”

— Susan Wiggs

67. “Just my luck, she thought. Here I am in the middle of nowhere, and Easy Rider comes to my rescue.”

— Susan Wiggs

68. “Kids aren’t supposed to have to figure out how to be happy. They just are.”

— Susan Wiggs

69. “On his very worst day, each one of these men managed to summon his very best. Each one embodied the essence of courage. It is not the state of being unafraid, but the rare ability to confront fear.”

— Susan Wiggs

70. “For memory, we use our imagination. We take a few strands of real time and carry them with us, then like an oyster we create a pearl around them. – John Banville.”

— Susan Wiggs

71. “He stopped working and smiled at her. “What are you thinking that makes you look at me so?” “I’m thinking I’d best do something about you soon.” “Are you open to suggestions?” Setting aside an iron chisel, he brushed her cheek. The glove glided, hot and rough, on her skin. She pushed his hand aside. “Not of that sort.”

— Susan Wiggs

72. “Difficulty is a miracle in its first stage. – Amish proverb.”

— Susan Wiggs

73. “There were few forces greater than the power of a fourteen-year-old’s determination when she wanted something. A teenager would stop at nothing in order to get her way.”

— Susan Wiggs

74. “Everybody’s in love when they’re eighteen. And everybody gets dumped.”

— Susan Wiggs

75. “I’m glad i found photography. It’s a way to connect with the world.”

— Susan Wiggs

76. “When she stepped into the shop that evening, she felt an emptiness so vast that she almost couldn’t breathe. Everything had drained out of her. “It’s exhausting, isn’t it?” asked Grandy. “A sadness like this. It’s physically exhausting.”

— Susan Wiggs

77. “During the post-breakdown period, she read books the way an addict swallowed pills. She devoured stories one after the other, trying not to let reality intrude too deeply.”

— Susan Wiggs

78. “Unlike men, books were easy. They filled you with all the emotions in the world – joy, dread, fear, hurt, gratification – and then they came to an end. People were different. Unpredictable. Impossible to manage.”

— Susan Wiggs

79. “She took down The Once and Future King and found a marked passage: “The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlyn, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails.” “There you have it,” Natalie said to the cat. “My plan for the day.”

— Susan Wiggs

80. “There was something in the way a man held a woman when he was about to let her go.”

— Susan Wiggs

81. “The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlyn, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails.”

— Susan Wiggs

82. “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

83. “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

84. “Be still. Be silent. Find the center of yourself.”

— Susan Wiggs

85. “Natalie reminded herself to savor the deep, rich wine and the glorious colors of the gathering sunset. She had a good life. A good job. A good friend.”

— Susan Wiggs

86. “Sometimes the true value of the piece is how much a person loves it.”

— Susan Wiggs

87. “I’ve always thought a quilt held together with a woman’s tears to be the strongest of all.”

— Susan Wiggs

88. “Memories are like a series of locked doors, and once you manage to get one open, it leads to another, and then another and so on. The hard part is finding the key to that first lock and getting through it.”

— Susan Wiggs

89. “Survival was a powerful driving force, stronger than hatred and love combined.”

— Susan Wiggs

90. “The moon garden of the mansion was famous, having been designed with night-blooming flowers lining the pathways and hillocks of the landscape. They stepped through open doors, went down the wide stone steps, and were greeted by the heady perfume of late-blooming autumn flowers. The pale blossoms were lit from below, setting a mood of mystery. A fountain of natural stone rose up out of a pond surrounded by terra-cotta sculptures.”

— Susan Wiggs

91. “She loved him so much that it hurt. Maybe that was how love worked. If you could handle the pain, you’d find the sweetness.”

— Susan Wiggs

92. “He wanted to experience the world in all its messy, confusing glory.”

— Susan Wiggs

93. “If I’m all alone, then the standard for sanity is up to me entirely.”

— Susan Wiggs

94. “Sometimes you have to let the right book find you.”

— Susan Wiggs

95. “Falling for him was too easy. Falling in general was easy. It was the landing you had to watch out for.”

— Susan Wiggs

96. “We don’t realize how wonderful today is until tomorrow. – Amish proverb.”

— Susan Wiggs

97. “I’ve always believed there’s something magical about a book. A bundle of paper and ink that can change your life.”

— Susan Wiggs

98. “When your pain is bad, and your strength is gone, you might start thinking of leaving.” “Leaving. I like that.”

— Susan Wiggs

99. “But it’s the nature – no, the duty – of a child to grow up and leave you. Doesn’t seem fair, does it? The person you love most in the world is destined to leave you and break your heart.”

— Susan Wiggs

100. “Try to be conspicuously accurate in everything, pictures as well as text. Truth is not only stranger than fiction, it is more interesting. -William Randolph Hearst.”

— Susan Wiggs