Adriana Trigiani > Quotes

“That's when you know for sure somebody loves you. They figure out what you need and they give it to you -- without you asking.”
― Adriana Trigiani, Very Valentine

“I even love the smell of books.”
― Adriana Trigiani

“I like it when my mother smiles. And I especially like it when I make her smile.”
― Adriana Trigiani, Viola in Reel Life

“Mom, how do you know if the guy is the guy?”

You mean if he’ll be a good husband?” She pauses, then says “The ticket is for the man to love the woman more than she loves him.”

Shouldn’t it be equal?”

Mom cackles. “It can never be equal.”

But what if the woman loves the man more?”

A life of hell awaits her. As women, the deck is stacked against us because time is our enemy. We age, while men season. And trust me, there are plenty of women out there looking for a man, and they don’t mind staking a claim on somebody else’s husband, no matter how old, creaky, and deaf they are.”
― Adriana Trigiani, Very Valentine

“...I've made it my business to observe fathers and daughters. And I've seen some incredible, beautiful things. Like the little girl who's not very cute - her teeth are funny, and her hair doesn't grow right, and she's got on thick glasses - but her father holds her hand and walks with her like she's a tiny angel that no one can touch. He gives her the best gift a woman can get in this world: protection. And the little girl learns to trust the man in her life. And all the things that the world expects from women - to be beautiful, to soothe the troubled spirit, heal the sick, care for the dying, send the greeting card, bake the cake - allof those things become the way we pay the father back for protecting us...”
― Adriana Trigiani, Big Stone Gap

“But what Mom never told me is that along the way, you find sisters, and they find you. Girls are cool that way.”
― Adriana Trigiani, Viola in Reel Life

“We hang out, we help one another, we tell one another our worst fears and biggest secrets, and then just like real sisters, we listen and don't judge.”
― Adriana Trigiani, Viola in Reel Life

“When a girl is beautiful, she gets to pick - she never has to wait for someone to choose her.”
― Adriana Trigiani

“The terrible things that happen to us in life never make any sense when we're in the middle of them, floundering, no end in sight. There is no rope to hang on to, it seems. Mothers can soothe children during those times, through their reassurance. No one worries about you like your mother, and when she is gone, the world seems unsafe, things that happen unwieldy. You cannot turn to her anymore, and it changes your life forever. There is no one on earth who knew you from the day you were born; who knew why you cried, or when you'd had enough food; who knew exactly what to say when you were hurting; and who encouraged you to grow a good heart. When that layer goes, whatever is left of your childgood goes with her. Memories are very different and cannot soothe you the same way her touch did.”
― Adriana Trigiani, Big Stone Gap

“A good mother is irreplaceable.”
― Adriana Trigiani

“When you lose someone, they take a bigger place in your heart, not a smaller one. Every day it grows, because you don't stop loving them. You wish you could talk to them. You need their advice. But life doesn't always give us what we need, and it's difficult.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“I don't settle in any other area of my life when it comes to excellence, so why should I lower my standards when it comes to boys?”
― Adriana Trigiani, Viola in Reel Life

“Whever I came into the room, she'd light up, so happy to see me. No one ever in the course of my entire life was ever as happy to see me as she was. Looking back, now, I realize that you only ever need one person who lights up that way when you enter a room. One person is all it takes to give a kid confidence.”
― Adriana Trigiani, Don't Sing at the Table: Life Lessons from My Grandmothers

“Isn't this the truth of any good mother? That in all of our lives. We worry only about those we brought into this world, regardless of whether they loved us back or treated us fairly or understood our shortcomings.”
― Adriana Trigiani, Big Cherry Holler

“Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved”
― Adriana Trigiani, Big Stone Gap

“Beware the things of this world that can mean everything or nothing.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“All the things I thought I was - simple and plain and sometime funny - are very small words. They do not begin to describe me. They do not begin to express what is inside of me. I have value, and I have worth. I cannot be replaced like old shoes or taken for granted like tap water.”
― Adriana Trigiani, Big Cherry Holler

“This should tell you everything you need to know about guys. They only go after what they know they can get. We girls, on the other hand, aim really high. We take a leap...”
― Adriana Trigiani, Viola in Reel Life

“Moments are history. If you have enough of them, they become a story.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“A handwritten letter carries a lot of risk. It's a one-sided conversation that reveals the truth of the writer. Furthermore, the writer is not there to see the reaction of the person he writes to, so there's a great unknown to the process that requires a leap of faith. The writer has to choose the right words to express his sentences, and then, once he has sealed the envelope, he has to place those thoughts in the hands of someone else, trusting that the feelings will be delivered, and that the recipient will understand the writer's intent. How childish to think that could be easy.”
― Adriana Trigiani, Brava, Valentine

“.. its not so much about the shoes, but the person wearing them”
― Adriana Trigiani, Viola in Reel Life

“No one worries about you like your mother, and when she is gone, the world seems unsafe, things that happen unwieldy. You cannot turn to her anymore, and it changes your life forever. There is no one on earth who knew you from the day you were born; who knew why you cried, or when you'd had enough food; who knew exactly what to say when you were hurting; and who encouraged you to grow a good heart. When that layer goes, whatever is left of your childhood goes with her.”
― Adriana Trigiani, Big Stone Gap

“Life, Enza decided, is not about what you get, but what is taken from you. It's in the things we lose that we discover what we most treasure.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“People have often told me that one of their strongest childhood memories is the scent of their grandmother's house. I never knew my grandmothers, but I could always count of the Bookmobile.”
― Adriana Trigiani, Big Stone Gap

“A practical girl never pines; she takes action.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“For a woman, love is the highest dream, and if a man promises to build a ladder tall enough to reach it, she believes him, hikes up her skirt, and follows him to the stars.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“I don't use a crap camera, I don't eat junk, and I'm not going to a dance where the boys are bores”
― Adriana Trigiani, Viola in Reel Life

“Relief is a wonderful emotion, highly underrated. In fact, I prefer it to elation or joy. Relief lets the air out of the Tire of Pain.”
― Adriana Trigiani, Rococo

“Our faces will become works of art that our grandchildren will treasure.”
― Adriana Trigiani, Don't Sing at the Table: Life Lessons from My Grandmothers

“If you look around to find meaning in everything that happens, you will end up disappointed. Sometimes there aren’t reasons behind the terrible things that go on. I ask myself, If I knew all the answers, would it help? I lie awake and wonder why I don’t have parents and wonder what will become of my brother and me. But when the morning comes, I realize that there’s nothing to be done about what has already happened. I can only get up and do my chores and push through the day and find the good in it.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife