Susan Wittig Albert > Quotes

“One person's weed is another person's wildflower.”
― Susan Wittig Albert, An Unthymely Death and Other Garden Mysteries

“The worst thing about talk ... is that there's no way to lay it to rest. Every fresh breeze brings a new speculation.”
― Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Hill Top Farm

“Does that mean you're prepared to deal with whatever turns up? People aren't sometimes. When they learn the real truth, they're all of a sudden content to live with a lie.”
― Susan Wittig Albert, Wormwood

“But as it turned out, the two had a great deal in common, for both Bailey and Thackeray (named for the famous novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, author of Vanity Fair) were devoted bibliophiles who believed that "a book a day kept the world at bay," as Thackeray was fond of saying. Bailey was the offspring of a generation of badgers who insisted that "Reader" was the most rewarding vocation to which a virtuous badger might be called and who gauged their week's anticipated pleasure by the height of their to-be-read pile. (Perhaps you know people like this. I do.)”
― Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Oat Cake Crag

“After a few months, I was no longer wildly romantic about him. But he gave me a warm place to park my heart while I went about my work.”
― Susan Wittig Albert, A Wilder Rose

“Maude regards the ones who don't make it as her own personal failures. "I guess I didn't put enough emphasis on 'until death do you part,'" she says sourly, whenever she hears about the latest divorce. "Sad to say, but some are in it just for the good times. Married folks, they gotta be like that cat's claw acacia I've got growin' in my yard. Gotta grab hard and hold on tight when the going gets rough. Only way to get through the bad times. Grab hard, hold on, and ride. No matter what.”
― Susan Wittig Albert, Cat's Claw

“There is nothing like a grocery list to remind us how human we are.”
― Susan Wittig Albert, Nightshade

“Never ask, never get," the dog replied. "Never try, never taste. Never taste, never enjoy.”
― Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Hawthorn House

“It is only in fiction that the protagonist moves in a single minded, one point focus, screening out everything that isn't related to the plot. Real people have to deal with the Myrtles of this world, who have sciatica and cold sores and want to tell you about them”
― Susan Wittig Albert, Love Lies Bleeding

“every American is governed only by the principle of personal responsibility and that his or her most important freedom is the absolute freedom to flourish or fail.”
― Susan Wittig Albert, A Wilder Rose

“Do any of us ever outgrow those old childhood hurts, or do they gnaw and fester in our spirits the whole length of our lives?”
― Susan Wittig Albert, A Wilder Rose

“generosity as a means of controlling someone is no gift at all. It’s a curse.”
― Susan Wittig Albert, A Wilder Rose

“And Miss Potter? Well, having believed in fairies when she was a child and continuing to believe in the creative power of the imagination, she was not at all bothered by the possibility that she and the children might see something they didn't understand.”
― Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood

“if we are aiming to be genuinely self-reliant, we must learn to embrace uncertainty and anxiety. If we fail, there will be nothing to break our fall—nothing but whatever cushion we have managed to create for ourselves.”
― Susan Wittig Albert, A Wilder Rose

“Stories are never a waste of time,”
― Susan Wittig Albert, A Wilder Rose

“Grown up at last and required to live all day long in the real world, it now seemed to Beatrix that imaginary fairies were of a great deal more use than real ones. And I think we must agree with her on that score. It is undeniably true that the imagination is far more powerful than knowledge, and that it is much more important to believe in something than to know it! There is, after all, a limit to the things we can know (even if we are fortunate enough to be geniuses), but no limit whatsoever to the things we might imagine. And if we cannot imagine, we will never know what we have yet to learn, for imagination shows us what is possible before knowledge leads us to what is true. For Beatrix, dreaming, imagining, creating, improvising, and fancying redeemed the stern and sometimes frightening world in which she lived, and allowed her to transform it.”
― Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood

“Farmers could do better if the government didn’t meddle and the free market was allowed to take its course. And we could all grow at least some of our food, if we invested a bit of work.”
― Susan Wittig Albert, A Wilder Rose

“If I'd known how the week was going to turn out I would have sent it back first thing Monday and asked for a refund.”
― Susan Wittig Albert, Thyme of Death

“So the badger poked up the fire, poured himself another cup of tea, and went back to the History to read the curious story of the Fern Vale dwelves, a story (he suspected) that was mostly unknown to the Big Folk. Of course, that sort of thing wasn't at all unusual, for although the human residents of the Land between the Lakes thought they knew everything about their surroundings, and although scholarly books related the history, inventoried the animals and plants, and catalogued the folktales, people were aware of only a fraction of what went on around them. One was not criticizing when one said this; one was simply stating the fact. Humans, by and large, were ignorant of the mysteries of life and land.”
― Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood

“I’m sure of one thing,” she said earnestly. “It hurts to—to let go of anything beautiful. But something will come to take its place, something different, of course, but better. The future’s always better than we can possibly think it will be . . . We ought to live confidently. Because whatever’s ahead, it’s going to be better than we’ve had.” Rose Wilder Lane Diverging Roads”
― Susan Wittig Albert, A Wilder Rose

“Don’t part with your illusions; when they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.”
― Susan Wittig Albert, A Wilder Rose

“Writing isn’t magic, it’s work; earning a living as a writer means showing up at the typewriter every day, whether you feel like it or not.”
― Susan Wittig Albert, A Wilder Rose

“with Under Secretary of State Stettinius, visiting”
― Susan Wittig Albert, The General's Women: A Novel

“lemon-mint monarda, which looks like purple pagodas and makes an effective insect repellent and a tangy tea; brown-eyed Susans, whose root juice the Cherokee used to treat earache;”
― Susan Wittig Albert, Rosemary Remembered

“But between then and now, I had met McQuaid. I had lived with him and learned that sustainable love doesn’t grow out of superheated physical passion, but out of simply holding hands and holding on, day in and day out. I’d learned that “good” really is enough, not because you’re settling for something less, but because “fantastic” and “incredible” burn you out emotionally, just as life in the fast lane bums you out physically.”
― Susan Wittig Albert, Rueful Death

“loud blues with a heavy walking bass,”
― Susan Wittig Albert, The Darling Dahlias and the Poinsettia Puzzle

“They went up on the front porch and Verna rang the doorbell. It was one of the old-fashioned ones with a brass handle that you twisted—”
― Susan Wittig Albert, The Darling Dahlias and the Poinsettia Puzzle

“Blood Orange Liqueur 4 blood oranges 1 lemon Fresh ginger, about 2" long, peeled and sliced 2 cups vodka 1 cup water 1 cup sugar Wash and dry the oranges and lemon. Peel the skin, leaving as much of the pith on the fruit as possible. Put peels in a quart jar. Remove the pith from two of the oranges, reserving the other two oranges and the lemon for another use. Cut the de-pithed oranges into pieces, place in a quart jar, and smash the orange with the back of a spoon against the sides of the jar. Add ginger and stir. Pour the vodka into the jar. To make simple syrup, combine water and sugar in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Cool. Pour the syrup into the fruit-alcohol mixture and cover tightly. Store in cool, dark place for at least one month, shaking occasionally. Strain the liqueur through a double layer of cheesecloth into a pitcher. Strain a second time through a new double layer of cheesecloth into bottles. Cap and store or use immediately.”
― Susan Wittig Albert, Blood Orange

“I had to concede that there was some logic to McQuaid’s concern. But it wasn’t logic we were talking about, it was control. The emancipated China rose up in me, the China who hates to be told what to do by somebody who thinks he knows better. She was indignant, and she spoke for me.”
― Susan Wittig Albert, Rosemary Remembered

“There was no point in questioning her version of the story.”
― Susan Wittig Albert, Rueful Death