Sally Hepworth > Quotes

“The library belongs to everyone. The library, Janet used to say, is one of only a few places in the world that one doesn't need to believe anything or buy anything to come inside.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Good Sister

“I like it when people remember that I'm a person, not just a person with Alzheimer's.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Things We Keep

“but I doubt there is a loss in the universe more profound than a daughter losing her mother.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Mother-in-Law

“When you get to my age,' he says, his face softening, 'you don't waste time with regrets. In the end, you just remember the moments of joy. When all is said and done, those are the things we keep.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Things We Keep

“I worked hard for everything I ever cared about, & nothing I ever cared about cost a single cent." ~ Mum”
― Sally Hepworth, The Mother-in-Law

“Angry is just a pen name for sad,” Janet had explained. “In my experience, nine times out of ten if you are kind to the angry person, you will calm them down and find out what is really going on with them.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Good Sister

“People underestimate the role fate plays in our lives.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Mother-in-Law

“I’d always found there was something agreeable about people who liked dogs and something untrustworthy about those who didn’t.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Good Sister

“Sons see the best parts of you, but daughters really see you. They see your flaws and your weaknesses. They see everything they don’t want to be. They see you for exactly who you are … and they hate you for it.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Mother-in-Law

“Who are we after we’re gone? I wonder. It’s a good question to ponder. Most people can’t come up with an answer right away. They frown, consider it for a minute. Maybe even sleep on it. Then the answers start to come. We’re our children. Our grandchildren. Our great-grandchildren. We’re all the people who will go on to live, because we lived. We are our wisdom, our intellect, our beauty, filtered through generations, continuing to spill into the world and make a difference.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Mother-in-Law

“maybe, she was so busy looking at the problems in the world, she forgot to give chances to those right under her nose.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Mother-in-Law

“I never had a good answer to Mom's question. 'If I don't remember, will I have been here at all?' But maybe her question was flawed. Maybe it doesn't matter what you remember. Maybe if someone else remembers and speaks your name, you were here.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Things We Keep

“Some people jumped in and tried to save someone who was in trouble; others did anything they could to save themselves.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Mother-in-Law

“If it were up to me, every child would have a year in the library before they went to school.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Good Sister

“Perhaps the very worst people still had some good in them. And perhaps the very best had some bad.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“What happens in our childhood shapes us – our ability to
relate to people, to manage our emotions, to control our impulses.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“Sisterly relationships are so strange in this way. The way I can be mad at Rose but still want to please her. Be terrified of her and also want to run to her. Hate her and love her, both at the same time. Maybe when it comes to sisters, boundaries are always a little bit blurry. Blurred boundaries, I think, are what sisters do best.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Good Sister

“It was amazing,
the effect a father had on a person. A father was the benchmark that told
you what to expect. What to accept. And, perhaps most importantly, what to
believe about yourself. Her father had taught her to expect nothing and to
accept less. And he’d taught her to believe that she was nothing.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Younger Wife

“To my family and friends who live in terror of being cast as a villain in one of my books. It's a valid fear. Be nice to me.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Mother-in-Law

“Maybe when it comes to sisters, boundaries are always a little bit blurry. Blurred boundaries, I think, are what sisters do best.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Good Sister

“Turns out I don't need someone holding my board and pushing me into the wave - I can do it myself. Several times as, as I ride the wave, I have that glorious, blissful feeling... like I'm flying. It's even better than the feeling I had the day Gabe took me surfing. Because it taught me that Gabriel Gerard isn't the only one who can make magic. I can make magic too.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Soulmate

“You might start something on a lie, or finish it on a lie, but that doesn't mean that everything in the middle isn't the truth.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Things We Keep

“The less perfect things were, she was finding, the more likely they were to be real.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Family Next Door

“Even after all these years, yearning for the love and attention of someone who couldn’t give it to her was much more comfortable than actually receiving it.”
― Sally Hepworth, Darling Girls

“If you were lucky, it implied that your good fortune hadn't been earned. You couldn't question it, or take it for granted. You had to be grateful. Because what had been given to you could just as easily be taken away.”
― Sally Hepworth, Darling Girls

“That people without sisters think it’s all sunshine and lollipops or all blood and guts. But actually it’s always both. Sunshine and guts. Lollipops and blood.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Good Sister

“A silent tear slips down my cheek. It strikes me that, with all the cruelties in this world, there is still nothing quite as dangerous as kindness.”
― Sally Hepworth, Mad Mabel

“. . . there’s really only two pieces of wisdom worth leaving behind. I worked hard for everything I ever cared about. And nothing I ever cared about cost a singly cent.”
― Sally Hepworth, The Mother-in-Law

“Panic was her constant state of being, as familiar to her as breathing. She imagined that even as a newborn she'd awoken each day with her heart in her throat, asking, What will today be like? Will I forget something, or say the wrong thing? How can I make everyone happy? What if I can't?”
― Sally Hepworth, Darling Girls

“Funny how love can remain, despite everything”
― Sally Hepworth, The Soulmate