Winter Garden Quotes
"Was this what forty looked like? Really?"
"Leaving the room, she clicked the door shut behind her and headed down the hallway toward the stairs."
"In the pale glow of a pair of long-outdated night-lights, she passed the closed doors of her children’s bedrooms."
"By the time they were all outside and on their way, it was 6:10 and the sky was a deep purplish gray."
"Lately that seemed to be the best way to handle things."
"Meredith ran slowly at first, acclimating herself to the cold."
"Everything about Meredith was big by nature."
"As she turned back onto her road, the rising sun illuminated the mountains, turned their snowcapped peaks lavender and pink."
"She came to a stop at her own front porch as the valley filled with bright golden light."
"He is my home. How will I live without him?"
"Each tree was a representative of her father’s life’s work."
"The expression of grief didn’t help. Only its suppression would get her through these hard times."
"It’s only been a few weeks. Cut me some slack."
"The story of my life. Thanks again." - Meredith
"You will regret this." - Mom to Meredith
"I do not care where I live anymore." - Mom
"You’re so much smarter than I am, Nina. So tell me, what am I wrong about?" - Meredith
"I know better than to make promises to the dying. Now you have learned this lesson, too." - Mom to Nina
"I'm tired, Neens. I don’t know if you know how that feels, really." - Meredith
"I should have called Dad more from Africa." - Nina
"But it’s all a lie. She just doesn’t . . . love us." - Meredith about Mom
"I don’t know if you’ve ever been in love." - Meredith to Nina
"Thank God it is not my family this time."
"Coming here is the only hope she has now."
"Soon, the Black Knight will realize his error."
"You hang on, until your hands are bleeding, and still you do not let go."
"To lose love is a terrible thing. But to turn away from it is unbearable."
"I wanted to remind you that we’re leaving tomorrow."
"Words matter, I guess. Maybe your dad knew that all along."
"You will be sorry you began all of this."
"You are a world-famous photojournalist, for fuck’s sake. They’d be crawlin’ all over themselves to give you a job."
"Sometimes, settling down is just plain settling."
"Since the start of bread rationing and the limitations placed on the withdrawal of banking accounts, you take what you can get."
"Vera stands in line for hours. At just past ten o’clock in the evening, she comes to the front. The only thing left for sale are jars of pickles, and she buys three—the amount she can afford and carry."
"Vera knows what this means, and if she did not, the look of despair in her mother’s eyes would have been enough to inform her."
"Winter is coming. We need food and a burzhuika."
"Vera, like everyone else, is tired and hungry and afraid."
"Vera hears a loud whistling and starts to run for one of the trenches in the park to her left."
"She finds her family in the basement, huddled alongside their neighbors."
"Vera feels a sharp clutch in her stomach at that."
"They find one deep in the back of the market, in a stall run by the kind of people Vera normally would never see."
"The man stares at it; sugar is like gold dust now."
"The stove is a small, ugly thing, cast iron with a pair of drawers that jut out brokenly."
"Vera knows that comfort will not help her children."
"You learn not to see them. Vera cannot believe that this is true, but it is."
"Vera trudges forward. She is so hungry that it is difficult to keep moving."
"Every day Vera is up at four o’clock in the morning, bundling up in her valenki and woolen coat."
"It is only the beginning. The next day Vera goes with her mother and the children to the market, where they search for a burzhuika."
"Vera is less than a mile from the apartment when the air raid alarm goes off, blaring through the nearly empty city streets."
"Vera scoops both her children into her arms, settles one on each hip. She doesn’t bother to brush their teeth, just puts them to bed and climbs in with them."
"I am not Anya Petrovna Whitson. This is the name I took, the woman I became."
"My father would have loved to see a sit-in or the college kids demonstrating."
"Leo eats the dirty, sugary particles greedily and cries for more."
"Vera goes almost light-headed at the sight of meat."
"The whole room smells of rich, sizzling ham and sweet, caramelized onions."
"Outside, the snow is falling. A veil of white obscures the city, softens it."
"Vera sits by Sasha on a black iron bench. A tree shivers beside them, dropping ice and snow."
"You’d be amazed what you can eat. There are rumors that the sausage sold in the markets is made from human flesh."
"I have evacuation papers. We are to leave on the twentieth."
"I have no idea how long we sit there, holding each other. Probably until the cold in the apartment drives us back into bed."
"I am old enough to know better, but common sense is gone with the sound of his voice."
"How can I explain how it feels to finally understand? A knife in the heart would hurt less."
"You are my strong one. You will be okay alone."
"My family, and run. I want Sasha’s arms around me so badly that I don’t think."
"The ache of loss is with me always, tempting me to close my eyes."
"We don’t need to be together to be together."
"You shine a light on hard times. This is what your pictures do. You do not let people look away from that which hurts."
"Life—and love—can be gone any second. When you had it, you needed to hang on with all your strength and savor every second."
"Joy and sadness were part of the package; the trick, perhaps, was to let yourself feel all of it, but to hold on to the joy just a little more tightly because you never knew when a strong heart could just give out."