Quotessence
Home / Authors / Elizabeth Berg
Elizabeth Berg

Elizabeth Berg Quotes

Writer

Filter quotes by topic

AllKnowsThinkingFeelsIfsPeopleChildrenHeartKindLooksMoments

Famous Elizabeth Berg Quotes

“When it's new and important, you have to rest in between times. And anyway, even when I like a person there is a weariness that comes. I can be with someone and everything is fine and then all of a sudden it can wash over me like a sickness, that I need the quiet of my own self. I need to unload my head and look at what I've got in there so far. See it. Think what it means. I always need to come back to being alone for a while.”

ThinkingNeedsLooksMeanPersonsI CanImportantSelfMy OwnFineQuietSicknessWeariness
Author:Elizabeth Berg
Create image

“The things that brought me the most comfort now were too small to list. Raspberries in cream. Sparrows with cocked heads. Shadows of bare limbs making for sidewalk filigrees. Roses past their prime with their petals loose about them. The shouts of children at play in the neighborhood, Ginger Rogers on the black-and-white screen.”

ChildrenPlayPastBlackWhitePleasureComfortShadowRoseScreensListsNeighborhoodPrimeBlack And WhiteCreamLimbsRogerPetalsSidewalkSparrowsGingerRaspberries
Author:Elizabeth Berg
Create image

“She sits down and puts her hand to her chest and rocks. Thinks of all she has lost and will lose. All she has had and will have. It seems to her that life is like gathering berries into an apron with a hole. Why do we keep on? Because the berries are beautiful, and we must eat to survive. We catch what we can. We walk past what we lose for the promise of more, just ahead.”

ThinkingHandsSeemsPastBeautifulLife IsLostLosesWalksRocksPromiseDown AndHolesChestsGatheringLife Is LikeBerriesAprons
Book:Home Safe: A Novel
Create image

“In the classics section, she had picked up a copy of The Magic Mountain and recalled the summer between her junior and senior years of high school, when she read it, how she lay in bed hours after she should have gotten up, the sheet growing warmer against her skin as the sun rose higher in the sky, her mother poking her head in now and then to see if she'd gotten up yet, but never suggesting that she should: Eleanor didn't have many rules about child rearing, but one of them was this: Never interrupt reading.”

IfsShouldYearsChildrenSchoolMotherReadingHoursSunGrowingMagicSkyHigherBedMountainSummerHigh SchoolShould HaveSkinsLaysRoseCopiesNow And ThenSeniorSheetsSectionsJuniorsSuggestingEleanorChild RearingSenior Year
Book:Home Safe: A Novel
Create image

“For all it's problems and difficulties, life is mostly a wonderful experience, and it is up to each person to make the most of each day. I hope you are successful in your life, but look to the heavens and the earth and especially to other people to find your real wealth. Wherever I am, wherever you go, know that my love goes with you.”

PeopleKnowsLooksPersonsRealProblemEarthLife IsHeavenWealthSuccessfulWonderfulDifficultyEach DayWonderful ExperienceReal Wealth
Book:Dream When You're Feeling Blue: A Novel
Create image

“I made cranberry sauce, and when it was done put it into a dark blue bowl for the beautiful contrast. I was thinking, doing this, about the old ways of gratitude: Indians thanking the deer they'd slain, grace before supper, kneeling before bed. I was thinking that gratitude is too much absent in our lives now, and we need it back, even if it only takes the form of acknowledging the blue of a bowl against the red of cranberries.”

IfsThinkingWayNeedsMadeDoneBeautifulFormDarkToo MuchGraceOur LivesGratitudeBedRedBlueIndianContrastBowlsAbsentSauceDeerSupperOld WaysKneelingDark BlueCranberries
Book:Open House: A Novel
Create image

“There are people who have never studied writing who are capable of being writers. I know this because I am an example. I was a part-time registered nurse, a wife, and a mother when I began publishing. I'd taken no classes, had no experience, no knowledge of the publishing world, no agent, no contacts ... Take the risk to let all that is in you, out. Escape into the open.”

PeopleKnowsWorldWritingMotherClassTakenWifeRiskExampleCapableContactAgentsNursePublishingPart Time
Author:Elizabeth Berg
Create image