Salli Gallagher > Salli's Quotes

“Looking pretty isn’t about how people see you. It’s about letting people know how you feel about yourself.”
― Karen White, The Sound of Glass

“Sometimes hope is all we have, and to lose that is to lose all.”
― Karen White, The Time Between

“But maybe everybody was like that, all of us living the lives we had to while dreaming of the lives we wanted.”
― Karen White, The Time Between

“All shut-eye ain't sleep; all good-bye ain't gone." The Time Between”
― Karen White

“Rainbows always gave her hope—hope that something beautiful waited for those strong enough to survive the storm.”
― Karen White, The Sound of Glass

“To give up too easily leads to regret, yet trying and then failing can lead us to second chances if we do not accept it as a failure, but a chance to learn.”
― Karen White, Learning to Breathe

“I noticed again the bruised oaks nearby, and their gallant attempts to flourish as if their scars didn't exist. "Why did some of the oaks die and some survive?"
Aimee gave me an elegant one-shoulder shrug. "Why do some people stay after a hurricane and why do some never come back?" She looked at me, her eyes measuring. "Why do some people continue to search for the missing, and others give up? I don't know. But I think sometimes a person has to be forced underwater to see if they're going to drown or swim.”
― Karen White, The Beach Trees

“I looked around the garden, the sun feeling warm on my back. "So why are you here? I would think you'd want to be as far away from a hurricane as possible."
She looked at me as if I'd just suggested streaking down the beach. It took her a moment to answer. "Because this is home." She wanted to see if the words registered with me, but I just looked back at her, not understanding at all.
After a deep breath, she looked up at a tall oak tree beyond the garden, its leaves still green against the early October sky, the limbs now thick with foliage. "Because the water recedes, and the sun comes out, and the trees grow back. Because" -she spread her hands, indicated the garden and the trees and, I imagined, the entire peninsula of Biloxi- "because we've learned that great tragedy gives us opportunities for great kindness. It's like a needed reminder that the human spirit is alive and well despite all evidence to the contrary." She lowered her hands to her sides. "I figured I wasn't dead, so I must not be done”
― Karen White, The Beach Trees

“...Being a mother is like being a gardener of souls. You tend your children, make sure the light always touches them; you nourish them. You sow your seeds, and reap what you sow.”
― Karen White, Sea Change

“My mom would say that crying for the moon is a lot like sitting in a rocking chair: It keeps you busy but it won't get you anywhere.”
― Karen White, Pieces of the Heart

“Some are called to be gardeners of souls, and she'd tended hers with the blind dedication that accepted the floods and famine along with the sunshine.”
― Karen White, Sea Change

“We all make choices, Miss Szarka. And if it doesn't work out the way we wanted it to, we can spend a lifetime blaming ourselves or blaming others. Either way, we've spent a lifetime blaming instead of a lifetime doing other things...I think the possibilities for second chances are everywhere if we just look hard enough." Eve”
― Karen White, The Time Between

“The more we loved, the more we lost ourselves.”
― Karen White The Lost Hours

“It still amazed me sometimes when I caught sight of myself in a mirror. I would be startled to see the stranger there, as if still expecting to see my blond hair and tight skin, my hands with long, straight fingers. Age was a thief, an insidious one who instead of robbing you at night while you slept took all of your possessions one by one and forced you to watch.”
― Karen White, The Time Between

“That there are no troubles in life that can't be sorted through or solved by spending time in the garden”
― Karen White

“It’s not only ghosts who haunt us. Our memories follow us through life, surprising us now and again when we are forced to turn around and look behind us.”
― Karen White, The Sound of Glass

“Sugar, your clothes should always be tight enough to show that you’re a woman, but loose enough to show that you’re a lady.” She”
― Karen White, The Sound of Glass

“You will never be truly happy if you keep holding on to the things that make you sad.”
― Karen White, The Sound of Glass

“Me? Rebuild" I shook my head."First off, I don't know anything about construction or reconstruction. And second, have you been down there? Have you seen it? So many people haven't moved back or rebuilt, and I totally get it. Why invest all that time and money when each hurricane season brings a new threat?"
Aimee regarded me with a steady blue gaze. "Why build skyscrapers in San Francisco that might be knocked down by an earthquake? Or why build farms in Kansas and Oklahoma that might get blown away by a tornado?" She snorted, and it seemed so uncharacteristic for the elegant old woman that I almost laughed. "Where did they want us to go, anyway? I figure if we're still breathing, then we're meant to keep going. So we rebuild. We start over. It's just what we do.”
― Karen White The Beach Trees, The Beach Trees

“...Being a mother is like being a gardener of souls. You tend your children, make sure the light always touches them”
― Karen White

“I stared back at him, trying to think of a way to explain how I'd eradicated the word "want" from my vocabulary long ago and replaced it with "need." It made life so much easier that way, blowing away all the unnecessary and distracting clutter from a life of purpose, much like I imagined a storm sweeping away anything not strong enough to withstand the struggle.”
― Karen White, The Beach Trees

“We've learned that great tragedy gives us opportunities for great kindness. It's like a needed reminder that the human spirit is alive and well despite all evidence to the contrary.”
― Karen White, The Beach Trees

“Everybody dies. But not everybody lives.”
― Karen White, The Sound of Glass

“I reached for Helen's hand, and felt her squeeze back, accepting that I would understand more than most the missing part of the human heart rendered by the absence of a mother and father.”
― Karen White, The Lost Hours

“Must take care of de root for to heal de tree.”
― Karen White, The Time Between

“Every woman should have a daughter to tell her stories to. Otherwise, the lessons learned are as useless as spare buttons from a discarded shirt. And all that is left is a fading name and the shape of a nose or the color of hair. The men who write the history books will tell you the stories of battle and conquests. But the women will tell you the stories of people's hearts.”
― Karen White

“The feelings I had for my sister were jumbled together, like the monkeys in a barrel game we'd had as children. All the brightly colored monkeys with their curved arms tangled and entwined, so convoluted that it was almost impossible to separate them.”
― Karen White, The Time Between

“I was starting to realize how much the presence of a child could make adults act more like adults.”
― Karen White, The Time Between

“...feelings of hurt and betrayal and utter loss poured through me like batter hitting a hot skillet.”
― Karen White, The Time Between

“I’ve always thought that old clothes are a lot like old houses; they bring the past and present together.”
― Karen White, Return to Tradd Street