Margaret Deland Quotes

Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock.

A friend will tell you she saw your old boyfriend - and he's a priest.

Let us never underestimate the power of a well-written letter.

There is something intrinsically wrong about letters. For one thing they are not instantaneous. ... Nor is this the only trouble about letters. They do not arrive often enough. A letter which has been passionately awaited should be immediately supplemented by another one, to counteract the feeling of flatness that comes upon us when the agonizing delights of anticipation have been replaced by the colder flood of fulfilment.

Don't you like to write letters? I do because it's such a swell way to keep from working and yet feel you've done something.

The Bible is a letter God has sent to us; prayer is a letter we send to him.

Some time all kinds of letters will be published to the ineffable delight of endless readers.

Hopefully what you do as an actor is strong enough and has enough of an impact that people get what you're trying to communicate.

If I could only write, I'd write a nasty letter to the mayor, if he could only read.

he who gives quickly gives twice / in nothing so much as in a letter.

If someone sends you a love letter you've got to answer back.

Letters should be easy and natural, and convey to the persons to whom we send them just what we should say to the persons if we were with them.

How wonderful it is to be able to write someone a letter! To feel like conveying your thoughts to a person, to sit at your desk and pick up a pen, to put your thoughts into words like this is truly marvelous.

All the times I have suddenly realized that my parents are dead, even now, it still surprises me, to exist in the world while that which made me has ceased to exist

I was demanding of myself a deeper and greater honesty, more and more revelation in my work in order to give it back to the people where it goes into their lives and nourishes them and changes their direction and makes light bulbs go off in their head and makes them feel. And it isn't vague, it strikes against the very nerves of their life and in order to do that you have to strike against the very nerves of your own.

What is the quality of your intent? Certain people have a way of saying things that shake us at the core. Even when the words do not seem harsh or offensive, the impact is shattering. What we could be experiencing is the intent behind the words. When we intend to do good, we do. When we intend to do harm, it happens. What each of us must come to realize is that our intent always comes through.

a letter, by its arrival, defrauds us of a whole secret region of our existence, the only region indeed in which the true pleasure of life may be tasted, the region of imagination, creative and protean, the clouds and beautiful shapes of whose heaven are destroyed by the wind of reality.

Ah, you're the one who wrote the letter. So you can write then.

A baseball bat could not have hit me harder than that smile did. I was sixteen years old. In that time, how many thousands of smiles had been aimed at me? so why did this one feel like the first?

Nobody had ever told me that anything could be like this.

I believe in sending a lot of letters and notes to friends.

A pleasant letter I hold to be the pleasantest thing that this world has to give.

To me, making a tape is like writing a letter – there's a lot of erasing and rethinking and starting again, and I wanted it to be a good one.

Her heart was bruised by the kiss, smashed and surprised and unsettled by it. September thought kisses were all nice, sweet things asked for gently and given gladly. It had happened so fast and sharp it had taken her breath. Perhaps she had done it wrong, somehow. She put the kiss away firmly to think about later. Instead, she smiled at him and pulled a carefree mask over her face.