115 Quotes by Tracy Chevalier

It’s simple, Miss Philpot. This is one of God’s early models, and He decided to give the subsequent ones smaller eyes.” I raised my eyebrows. “Do you mean God rejected it?” “I mean God wanted a better version – the crocodile we know now – and replaced it.

Most other front gardens when planted with flowers looked both formal and artificial. Judith Haymaker, for instance, had put in daffodil and hyacinth bulbs so that they came up in rigid rows, a sight English women would have smiled at. While plentiful, Mrs Reed’s flowers had a randomness about them that reminded Honor of coming upon primroses or anemones in the woods. They were just there, as if they always had been. It took real skill to remove the gardener’s hand from the garden.

I have consistently loved books that I’ve read when I’ve been sick in bed.

It seemed to me that the baker had an honest response to the painting. Van Ruijven tried too hard when he looked at paintings, with his honeyed words and studied expressions. He was too aware of having an audience to perform for, whereas the baker merely said what he thought.

The sign of a masterpiece: A painting when there’s a lack of resolution.

Life itself was far messier and didn’t end so tidily with the heroine making the right match.

Life was often simply the repetition of the same movements in a different order, depending on the day and the place.

It’s a rare book that wins the battle against drooping eyelids.

She’d had a terrible time with his brothers’ wives : seeing her with them was like watching someone pet a cat against its fur.