Alice Hoffman Quotes

In the total darkness, poetry is still there, and it is there for you.

I have many reasons why I think reading is really important. It provided for me a refuge, especially during difficult times. It provided me with the notion that I could find an ending that was different from what was happening to me at the time.

In my stories, I controlled what happened in a way I couldn't in real life. My characters lived through the horror and degradation of the cruelty of others and they not only survived, they thrived. They gave me hope and laughter, and they kept me going in spite of everything else. They were my heroes.

The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering.

When I was a teenager, reading for me was as normal, as unremarkable as eating or breathing. Reading gave flight to my imagination and strengthened my understanding of the world, the society I lived in, and myself. More importantly, reading was fun, a way to live more than one life as I immersed myself in each good book I read.

People are looking for inspiration, and my books are sometimes the vehicles of what people are looking for.

Music and books, I think, were the two things I trusted the most as a child - songs and books.

I don't think art is propaganda; it should be something that liberates the soul, provokes the imagination and encourages people to go further. It celebrates humanity instead of manipulating it.

I don't know if music can change the world overnight but I know that music can help someone make it through a difficult night.

Children have limited power to shape their own lives, but when they can experiment with possibilities through books, their optimism can be recharged and kept alive.

A lot of kids are broken, and it's hard for them to believe in anything. But you have to have an imaginative mind and tell yourself, 'Hey, I can do whatever I want to.'

Books stay with me and have shaped me and made huge impacts on my life.

Books change us. Books save us. I know this because it happened to me. Books saved me. So, I do believe through stories we can learn to change, we can learn to empathize and be more connected with the universe and with humanity.

From your parents you learn love and laughter and how to put one foot before the other. But when books are opened you discover that you have wings.

You must not for one instant give up the effort to build new lives for yourselves. Creativity means to push open the heavy, groaning doorway to life.

I see drawings and pictures in the poorest of huts and the dirtiest of corners.

Made with Pencils is grounded in the creativity of a few, propelled by the financial support of many, and most importantly, it's empowering generations to come. A simple idea, a heartfelt desire, and a world of possibility. A pencil, a promise, and a dream.

A theatre is the most important sort of house in the world because that's where people are shown what they could be if they wanted and what they'd like to be if they dared to and what they really are.

My parents taught me to believe that through the creative act, we're able to transcend and give a response to desecration.

Art helped give me confidence.

I hope you will go out and let stories happen to you, and that you will work them, water them with your blood and tears and you laughter till they bloom, till you yourself burst into bloom.

Dr. Einstein was not successful in school, but he found something in the air from his own imagination and his own brain power, and look what he did.

And woven into the fabric of this harsh existence was music.

One of the biggest motivations for me with writing my books is to offer girls some escapism, especially girls who really need it, like I did.

Art led the way for me to recover. He got out of prison before me and started traveling all over the world before I did. He showed me by example that it could be done, and I'll always love him for that.