The Language Of Flowers Quotes
"Even so, the moment my mattress started to burn, I bolted awake."
"Watching them light, I felt a terror unequal to the size of the flickering flames."
"In their eyes was nothing but fear: of me, of their housemates, of the life they had earned or been given."
"It was a foggy San Francisco morning, the concrete porch cool on my bare feet."
"I used the same flowers again and again: a bouquet of marigold, grief; a bucket of thistle, misanthropy; a pinch of dried basil, hate."
"Immediately, I knew it was the message I wanted to give."
"Meredith’s twenty-dollar bill bought five gallons of whole milk."
"My room was empty except for three sets of clothes, my backpack, a toothbrush, hair gel, and the books Elizabeth had given me."
"It seemed, finally, that I might get exactly what I wanted."
"I waited on the front porch, a cardboard box balanced on my thighs."
"She was asking for my plan, demanding I think about my own self-sufficiency."
"I wanted to be alone, and to be surrounded by flowers."
"I hovered, watchful, plucking the invasive species almost before they could push their way out of the darkness."
"But for the first time in my life I had my own bedroom with a locking door, and no one telling me where to be or what to do."
"But despite her frustrations, Meredith had kept my case."
"No one to blame but yourself from here on out."
"I didn’t want to go back. I liked Elizabeth. I liked her flowers, her grapes, and her concentrated attention."
"The water from my wet clothes soaked into the fur carpet, and the whole world was wet and blue and cold."
"If I started lying about it, there would be nothing left in my life that was beautiful or true."
"I had been loyal to nothing except the language of flowers."
"She kept me so well fed that I had yet to go back for the American cheese in my desk drawer."
"Being with him was enough; I had no desire to further uncover the past."
"I knew Perla would not be my friend because I had never, in nine years, had a friend."
"Elizabeth cooked and cleaned while I lay around day after day, doing nothing."
"My instinct was to walk away from the open door, but the reality of having nowhere to walk to was insurmountable."
"If Elizabeth was finally going to make the phone call she had been attempting for days, I wanted to listen."
"I would teach myself photography by documenting my successes and my failures."
"I’ve always liked being alone. No one can understand that."
"Don’t lie. Tell me you’ll never forgive me for what my mother did, or tell me every time you look at me you feel sick."
"The rhythm of our life together reminded me of the months before my adoption proceeding."
"I was the exception, I knew, and even my own good fortune I believed to be a fleeting moment in what would be a long, hard, solitary life."
"Tomorrow, I will feel different. I will wake up, look around, and see a room—a life—that is mine and will never be taken away from me."
"People change," Elizabeth said. "Love doesn’t. Family doesn’t."
"Not all mothers have the patience, she said, or the selflessness, but she knew I would."
"I had loved, more than once. I just hadn’t recognized the emotion for what it was until I had done everything within my power to destroy it."
"The despair had moved to a deeper, quieter place. I pretended I was clean and renewed, ignoring its low, persistent buzz."
"I poured myself a glass of orange juice and sat on the floor, looking into the baby’s basket."
"The longer the baby slept, the more the despair subsided until I could almost make myself believe I had overcome its gravity."
"They were deep, mysterious eyes, as if she was still connected to the place from which she had come."
"I had spent my life being hateful and solitary, and I could not, overnight, become loving and attached."
"The relentless suction on my breast pulled the despair up from wherever it was that it had receded."
"I knew what she wanted, and I knew how to give it to her. It seemed like it should be so simple."
"The sound of the cry became something distant and unpleasant but no longer overwhelming."
"It felt like a horrible joke to leave me alone with a baby, responsible for another life."
"My body was flooded with emotion, relief but also undeniable disappointment, followed immediately by shame."
"Breast-feeding was too much for me. I would never be able to maintain it."
"The moss pulsed with the beating of her heart."
"I missed you today," Elizabeth said when I walked into the room."
"I loved a man, once," she said simply. "It was a long time ago."
"I couldn’t take credit for an abstract contribution to the world when in every tangible human interaction I’d ever had I’d caused only pain."
"For me, it was only awful because I wasn’t here, with you."
"Forgiveness should come naturally, but in this family, it hadn’t."
"I needed to accept Grant’s love, and Elizabeth’s, and earn the love of my daughter."
"Perhaps the unattached, the unwanted, the unloved, could grow to give love as lushly as anyone else."
"We would read books and rock in her rocking chair. Afterward, we would try to sleep."
"Over time, we would learn each other, and I would learn to love her like a mother loves a daughter, imperfectly and without roots."