Vanessa Diffenbaugh > Quotes

“Anyone can grow into something beautiful.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

“Perhaps the unattached, the unwanted, the unloved, could grow to give love as lushly as anyone else.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

“Common thistle is everywhere,” she said. “Which is perhaps why human beings are so relentlessly unkind to one another.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

“In that moment, we were the same, each of us destroyed by our limited understanding of reality.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

“Hate can be passionate or disengaged; it can come from dislike but also from fear.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

“It wasn't as if the flowers themselves held within them the ability to bring an abstract definition into physical reality. Instead, it seemed that...expecting change, and the very belief in the possibility instigated a transformation.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

“Over time, we would learn each other and I would learn to love her like a mother loves a daughter, imperfectly and without roots.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

“This time, there was no escape, I could not turn away, could not leave without accepting what I had done. There was only one way to the other side, and that was through the pain.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

“Your behavior is a choice; it isn’t who you are.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

“I believe you can prove everyone wrong, too, Victoria. Your behavior is a choice; it isn't who you are.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

“Here you are, obsessed with romantic language-a language invented for expression between lovers-and you use it to spread animosity.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

“I felt my true, unworthy self to be far away from his clutching grasp, hidden from his admiring gaze.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

“Her eyes were open, taking in my tired face... Her face twitched into what looked like a squinty smile, and in her wordless expression I saw gratitude, and relief, and trust. I wanted, desperately, not to disappoint her.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

“Now, as an adult, my hopes for the future were simple: I wanted to be alone, and to be surrounded by flowers. It seemed, finally, that I might get exactly what I wanted.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

“I would keep her, and raise her, and love her, even if she had to teach me how to do it.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

“You should see the way she smiles when I rattle off the names of the orchids in the greenhouse: oncidium, dendrobium, bulbophyllum, and epidendrum, tickling her face with each blossom. I wouldn't be surprised if 'Orchidaceae' was her first word.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

“If it was true that moss did not have roots, and maternal love could grow spontaneously, as if from nothing, perhaps I had been wrong to believe myself unfit to raise my daughter. Perhaps the unattached, the unwanted, the unloved, could grow to give love as lushly as anyone else.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh

“For eight years I dreamed of fire. Trees ignited as I passed them; oceans burned.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

“She was perfect. I knew this the moment she emerged from my body, white and wet and wailing. Beyond the requisite ten fingers and ten toes, the beating heart, the lungs inhaling and exhaling oxygen, my daughter knew how to scream. She knew how to make herself heard. She knew how to reach out and latch on. She knew what she needed to do to survive. I didn’t know how it was possible that such perfection could have developed within a body as flawed as my own, but when I looked into her face, I saw that it clearly was.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

“Do you really think you’re the only human being alive who is unforgivably flawed? Who’s been hurt almost to the point of breaking?”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

“I would learn to love her like a mother loves a daughter, imperfectly and with out roots.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh

“We replanted. The loss was substantial, but it was overshadowed completely by losing you.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

“If it was true that moss did not have roots, and maternal love could grow spontaneously as if from nothing, perhaps I had been wrong to believe myself unfit to raise my daughter. Perhaps the unattached, the unwanted, the unloved, could grow to give love as lushly as anyone else.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

“The language of flowers is nonnegotiable, Victoria,” Elizabeth said,”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

“I’m talking about the language of flowers. It’s from the Victorian era, like your name. If a man gave a young lady a bouquet of flowers, she would race home and try to decode it like a secret message. Red roses mean love; yellow roses infidelity. So a man would have to choose his flowers carefully.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

“I had been loyal to nothing except the language of flowers. If I started lying about it, there would be nothing in my life that was beautiful or true.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

“Hyacinth. Please forgive me.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

“The origin of our identity is love.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, We Never Asked for Wings

“I'm more of a thistle-peony-basil kind of girl.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers

“Moss has no roots.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers