Hazel Gaynor > Quotes

“We are the sum of those who have touched our lives in one way or another.”
― Hazel Gaynor, The Cottingley Secret

“Life is fragile Grace – it is no more than a petal of cherry blossom; thriving and in full bloom one minute and blown to the ground by a sudden gust of wind the next. We shouldn’t take our life for granted and we should do whatever we can to make ourselves happy.”
― Hazel Gaynor, The Girl Who Came Home

“You don’t need anybody’s permission to live the life you desire, Olivia. You need only the permission of your heart.”
― Hazel Gaynor, The Cottingley Secret

“Now you look here. All your father ever dreamed of for you was to do something you loved in life. He didn't care about fancy qualifications or fancy clothes or cars, just that you were both happy and fulfilled. He was so excited about your dreams for a career.”
― Hazel Gaynor, The Girl Who Came Home

“That night, I fell into a deep, travel-weary sleep, lulled by the familiar sound of the waterfall beyond the window. I dreamed of the beck fairies, a blur of lavender and rose-pink and buttercup-yellow light, flitting across the glittering stream, beckoning me to follow them toward the woodland cottage. There, the little girl with flame-red hair picked daisies in the garden, threading them together to make a garland for her hair. She picked a posy of wildflowers- harebell, bindweed, campion, and bladderwort- and gave them to me.”
― Hazel Gaynor, The Cottingley Secret

“Give the world your best, and the best will come back to you.”
― Hazel Gaynor, A Memory of Violets

“It is only by believing in magic that we can ever hope to find it.”
― Hazel Gaynor, The Cottingley Secret

“You have to be passionate about the things you put in your life: the music you listen to, the food you eat, the friends you hang out with, even the bloody towels you hang in the guest bathroom. It’s about choice, Olivia. It is always about choice.”
― Hazel Gaynor, The Cottingley Secret

“There is more to every photograph than what we see-more to the story than the one the camera captures on the plate. You have to look behind the picture to discover the truth.”
― Hazel Gaynor, The Cottingley Secret

“Never leave yourself open to regret Grace. We can only make a decision when we know the choices we are faced with. If we shy away, turn our backs and hide, we will simply never know. And that is when you end up old and wondering and regretting. Live a life of hope. Don’t live a life of regret.”
― Hazel Gaynor, The Girl Who Came Home

“I moved silently across the garden, silvered with moonlight, my feet barely touching the ground. I brushed past fern and tree, following the lights across the stream, toward the cottage in the clearing where I watched a little girl surrounded by light and laughter as the fairies threaded flowers through her hair. I stood out of sight, peering through the tangled blackberry bushes, but the girl saw me, rushing forward, her hand outstretched, a white flower clasped between her fingers. "For Mammy," she said. "For my Mammy.”
― Hazel Gaynor, The Cottingley Secret

“That was when I saw the first flash of emerald, then another of blue, then yellow, glimpsed out of the corner of my eye. Not dragonflies. Not butterflies. Something else. Something moving among a cluster of harebells, the delicate white flowers nodding as their petals and leaves were disturbed by the slightest of movements, like a gentle breeze blowing against them and yet there wasn't the slightest breath of wind at the beck that day.”
― Hazel Gaynor, The Cottingley Secret

“you can always find a reason to begin again, whatever life has in store for you.”
― Hazel Gaynor, The Girl Who Came Home

“I know the midst of war is far from the ideal place to fall in love, but true love does not care for time nor place. It will strike whenever and wherever it is supposed to, however improbable it might seem.”
― Hazel Gaynor, Last Christmas in Paris

“To live in the hearts of those we love is never to die.”
― Hazel Gaynor

“As her dreams intensified, the red-haired girl became so real to Olivia that she found herself absentmindedly sketching her image during the day, bringing her to life on the page. She drew her surrounded by the flowers she held in her hands- white harebell, pink campion, and yellow cinquefoil- entwining them into the curls in her hair, until the flowers and plants were not around her, but part of her. A true child of the woodland.”
― Hazel Gaynor, The Cottingley Secret

“Even the brave were once afraid. However well I might hide it, the truth is, I am terrified.”
― Hazel Gaynor, The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter

“I find myself wondering if real, honest love can flourish in times of war, or if we are all just grasping desperately to the slightest suggestion of it, like drowning men clinging to life.”
― Hazel Gaynor, Last Christmas in Paris

“Wonderful adventures await for those who dare to find them.”
― Hazel Gaynor, The Girl from the Savoy

“I fell into a restless sleep in which my dreams carried me away over misty valleys and moonlit woodlands toward a fairy glen, where I watched their beautiful midnight revels in silent awe as I whispered the words of my favorite poem. " 'You shall hear a sound like thunder, / And a veil shall be withdrawn, / When her eyes grow wide with wonder, / On that hill-top, in that dawn.”
― Hazel Gaynor, The Cottingley Secret

“I know that the best time to see them is in that perfect hour before sunset when the sun sinks low on the horizon like a ripe peach and sends shafts of gold bursting through the trees. The "in between," I call it. No longer day, not yet night; some other place and time when magic hangs in the air and the light plays tricks on the eye. You might easily miss the flash of violet and emerald, but I- according to my teacher, Mrs. Hogan- am "a curiously observant child." I see their misty forms among the flowers and leaves. I know my patience will be rewarded if I watch and listen, if I believe.”
― Hazel Gaynor, The Cottingley Secret

“They tell you that it will pass, that there'll be a day when you wake up and your heart doesn't ache, a day when you don't cry, but laugh and smile and remember the person you've lost with great fondness. You can't believe that day will ever come. But it does, doesn't it? Somehow, it does.”
― Hazel Gaynor, A Memory of Violets

“Sometimes, I feel I could be blown away on the breeze like a dandelion seed if I don't grasp hold of something solid and permanent and unchanging. No wonder we all flock to church every Sunday. There is a comfort in such permanence as that offered by the centuries-old walls and a vicar who is nearly as old.”
― Hazel Gaynor, Last Christmas in Paris

“No matter how many charts and maps we study, or how cleverly we believe ourselves able to interpret the change in atmosphere or the shape of the clouds or the movement of the waves, we can never truly know what the day will bring; cannot plan for every eventuality. Only as each dreadful misfortune or delightful surprise unfolds can we choose how to respond; fleeting decisions made in an instant but which carry an echo across a lifetime.”
― Hazel Gaynor, The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter

“It was on the warmest days when I saw them most clearly, days when the sun dawdled high in the sky, tinting everything with rich gold and amber as long shadows played lazy games of hide-and-seek among the trees and ferns. Like the wildflowers that decorated the riverbank, my fairy friends grew more abundant as the summer went on, multiplying in numbers and strengthening in color, the pale yellows and greens evolving into mauves and pinks.”
― Hazel Gaynor, The Cottingley Secret

“For there is no friend like a sister In calm or stormy weather; To cheer one on the tedious way, To fetch one if one goes astray, To lift one if one totters down, To strengthen whilst one stands. —Christina Rossetti, “Goblin Market,” 1862”
― Hazel Gaynor, A Memory of Violets: A Novel of London's Flower Sellers

“Yorkshire's autumn was as great a gift as Yorkshire's summer. I loved watching the rusting of the leaves while the dales mellowed to shades of ochre, and rose hips and blackberries grew deliciously fat on their branches. The morning mists were mystical and magical to me, and the rose-glow of the evening sun lent the sky a hypnotic light that matched any Cape Town sunset.”
― Hazel Gaynor, The Cottingley Secret

“keep faith in yourself. You command your own destiny. Not the enemy. Only you.”
― Hazel Gaynor, Last Christmas in Paris

“With my arms wrapped around Rosebud, I dreamed of heather-topped hills and sleepy valleys and a pretty woodland stream where dragonflies danced across the water as I sat down among the ferns and the meadowsweet, waiting for the summer to find me.”
― Hazel Gaynor, The Cottingley Secret

“We can’t always change the situations life puts us in, but we can change the way we respond.”
― Hazel Gaynor, The Cottingley Secret