Elin Hilderbrand Quotes

Sometimes you regret the things you do, but they're over and done. Regretting the things you didn't do is tougher because they're still out there, haunting you with the what ifs.

When you peered into the windows of someone else's life, you could only guess what was going on.

To be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late, to be late is to be forgotten.

Guilt and no guilt: these were the worst things. The only thing worse than the guilt was the fear of getting caught.

I am a summer person.

Iowa City is okay as Midwestern cities go, but theres no food, no culture, no ocean.

For graduate school I ended up going to the University of Iowa, which is, of course, the best graduate writing program in the country.

One is never too young for fine literature . . .

...Every life contains a novel.

Nothing was a natural predator of productive fiction writing like the cell phone. Ditto the laptop. As she had well learned, the laptop could destroy a day.

Meredith immersed herself in the novels. For some reason, fiction hit on the meaning of life so much more concisely than real life itself did.

Fear gripped her like hands around the neck, the way it could only happen in an unfamiliar room in the pitch black of night.

What happened when we died? How were we to know that death wasn't as profound an adventure as life was?

I want an ending when the woman is happy instead of good.

Every life contains a novel.

With this in mind, Ava tells herself to be present and celebrate the holiday instead of wishing it was over. After all, one is given only a certain number of Christmases in one's life.