Adriana Trigiani

"I even love the smell of books."

"Mom, how do you know if the guy is the guy?You mean if he’ll be a good husband? She pauses, then says The ticket is for the man to love the woman more than she loves him. Shouldn’t it be equal?Mom cackles. It can never be equal. But what if the woman loves the man more?A life of hell awaits her. As women, the deck is stacked against us because time is our enemy. We age, while men season. And trust me, there are plenty of women out there looking for a man, and they don’t mind staking a claim on somebody else’s husband, no matter how old, creaky, and deaf they are."

"That's when you know for sure somebody loves you. They figure out what you need and they give it to you -- without you asking."

"I come from hardworking, determined people on both sides of my family... the kind who live with a hard reality from which much strength comes."

"The 'Story of Silent Night', which was given to me one Christmas when I was six - it was the story of a down and out composer who had no ideas left, and it was Christmas, and he came up with the hymn 'Silent Night."

"You never know when some small thing will lead to a big idea. Travel is very inspirational - but it's in the ordinary that I find my themes of love and work and family."

"A good mother is irreplaceable."

"When a girl is beautiful, she gets to pick - she never has to wait for someone to choose her."

"My mother was an avid reader... She loved books about romance. Books that took place in faraway places and times. Stories with costumes..."

"I even love the smell of books."

"When I observe Gram, I see how fragile the notion of tradition can be. If I take my eyes off the way she kneads her Easter bread, or if I fail to study the way she sews a seam in suede, or if I lose the mental image I have of her when she negotiates a better deal with a button salesman, somehow, the very essence of her will be lost. When she goes, the responsibility for carrying on will fall to me. My mother says I’m the keeper of the flame, because I work here, and because I choose to live here. A flame is a very fragile thing, too, and there are times when I wonder if I’m the on who can keep it going."