Beth Duke > Quotes

“I started collecting something of my own: words.”
― Beth Duke, It All Comes Back to You

“You should always walk like you have a crown on your head, Ronni. You are beautiful when you radiate confidence. Remember that.”
― Beth Duke, It All Comes Back to You

“There are diamonds in the red clay of northeast Alabama. Delaney is one of them.”
― Beth Duke

“A love story can be described, but it’s truly known to only two people. They share the first accidental brush of fingertips, every sigh and private joke. They dance to the same music in their hearts for a lifetime.”
― Beth Duke, It All Comes Back to You

“known to only two people. They share the first accidental brush of fingertips, every sigh and private joke. They dance to the same music in their hearts for a lifetime.”
― Beth Duke, It All Comes Back to You

“Laughter was the only way we could cope. It was like the momentum needed to keep going forward on a bicycle. The humor propelled us down the halls.”
― Beth Duke, It All Comes Back to You

“You are always on my mind, no matter where I go or what I do. The thought of you brings light into the darkest day.”
― Beth Duke, It All Comes Back to You

“You were the only world I wanted to live in.”
― Beth Duke, It All Comes Back to You

“This is the taste of secrets, she thought. Be quiet and let it linger on the tongue: the sickening cost of preserving the world for those I love, who can’t know I have a daughter in Florida; who can’t know my shining example of a husband is a drunk who beats me.”
― Beth Duke, It All Comes Back to You

“begin”
― Beth Duke, It All Comes Back to You

“They dance to the same music in their hearts for a lifetime.”
― Beth Duke, It All Comes Back to You

“let”
― Beth Duke, It All Comes Back to You

“This is the taste of secrets, she thought. Be quiet and let it linger on the tongue: the sickening cost of preserving the world for those I love, who can’t know I have a daughter in Florida; who can’t know my shining example of a husband is a drunk who beats me. Violet set her fork”
― Beth Duke, It All Comes Back to You

“River says we all drink from the same stream, you know? There is not one drop of water on our planet that is new.”
― Beth Duke, It All Comes Back to You

“She closed her eyes. Our lives, she considered, were so frighteningly unplanned. Everything came before or after certain moments; huge rocks that sent rivers of expectation and hope spilling into new directions, never to return.”
― Beth Duke, It All Comes Back to You

“when”
― Beth Duke, It All Comes Back to You

“This sadness will transform you. All sadness does. It will help you understand yourself. Let it guide you.”
― Beth Duke, It All Comes Back to You

“my bed, his back outlined in the soft dawn light. I raked my fingernails down his spine and he turned to kiss me.”
― Beth Duke, It All Comes Back to You

“Wichahpi Commemorative Stone Wall. It’s over a mile long, twisting and turning its way all over the property of Tom Hendrix. The locals call it Tom’s Wall.”
― Beth Duke, Tapestry

“Grammy was a little disappointed, I think, to see there weren’t too many customers. We’d accidentally scheduled our trip on a Saturday during football season, which meant the entire state of Alabama would appear to have been raptured unless you were in a stadium or in front of a TV.”
― Beth Duke

“in a matinee this afternoon before we go sightseeing.” An hour later Sam parked on a side street in downtown Atlanta and opened Violet’s door. He led her to a colorful trolley car and helped her aboard, arm tight around her shoulders. The other passengers”
― Beth Duke, It All Comes Back to You

“I am yours always, anywhere and anywhen”
― Beth Duke, Anywhen

“to Florence, Alabama.”
― Beth Duke, Tapestry

“we are all woven into the past as much as the present? We’re a tiny part of a tapestry so immense and beautiful, we can’t imagine it.”
― Beth Duke, Tapestry

“What rapture I felt the first time I touched her tiny face, and watched her fingers curl around mine. She is my future, the hopes and dreams of a very old lady.”
― Beth Duke, Delaney's People: A Novel in Small Stories

“Forgiveness is never about measuring the wrong against you, about weighing the injuries and calculating the moral equation. It’s about freeing yourself to move on, and allowing the other person to move on, too. It’s unlocking the room you’re trapped in together.”
― Beth Duke, Tapestry

“of A Prayer for Owen Meany”
― Beth Duke, Tapestry

“DNA is far from the only thing that holds people together, Ronni. The strongest bonds are formed by love, not genes.”
― Beth Duke, Dark Enough to See the Stars

“Do you know what the Germans did in Prague, Phil? They collected homes and possessions of the Jews. They were saving it all, artifacts for a museum of the vanquished race.”
― Beth Duke, Dark Enough to See the Stars