Vanessa Diffenbaugh Quotes

We replanted. The loss was substantial, but it was overshadowed completely by losing you. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

kissed his forehead. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Every second I have spare, I'm with my kids. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

The birds had been given everything they needed. A home in the thin, pure air: a moment of weightlessness, a reprieve from the gravity of life ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

I wanted to write with emotional honesty and tell a story people could connect with. And I wanted people to know how the foster system in America fails children; and how, at 18, they fall through the cracks. Then we can all work together and give support. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

At Camellia Network, we believe if we can create a way of identifying every young person aging out of foster care, defining what they need, and giving a community of supporters a simple and clear way to fulfill those needs, we can produce radically improved outcomes for youth. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

My husband was working as principal of an urban transformation high school - the kind of public charter school determined to do whatever it takes to give its mostly minority, low-income student body the education they need and deserve to be successful in life. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

I've worked with homeless kids, kids in foster care, and I've never met a kid who couldn't be reached. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

There's still something so pure and heartfelt and emotional and genuine about a bouquet of flowers that, even with all the advances of technology and the millions of ways we have to communicate with each other, flowers are still relevant in my opinion. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

I'm very interested in getting inside the heads of people society discards, people on the fringe, especially immigrant kids. We dismiss them without getting into details of who they are. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

My last book, 'The Language of Flowers,' I wrote completely on naptime, when my little kids were asleep. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

I don't think there is anything magical about the language of flowers in real life or in my book. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Nothing you could do would make me send you away. Nothing. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Moss has no roots. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

We all make mistakes, and we all need second chances. For youth in foster care, these mistakes are often purposeful - if not consciously so; a way to test the strength of a bond and establish trust in a new parent. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

I traveled a full two years with 'Language of Flowers.' ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

I've always loved the language of flowers. I discovered Kate Greenaway's 'Language of Flowers' in a used bookstore when I was 16 and couldn't believe it was such a well-kept secret. How could something so beautiful and romantic be virtually unknown? ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Moss grows without roots. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

What do you love, and what do you know? And then, what are you curious about? Everyone has a unique story, unique interests-and these are what should drive your inquiries. So if you're having trouble figuring out your area of interest, spend some time thinking about what you know, and what you love, and what makes you different. The more different you are, the better. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Anyone can grow into something beautiful. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Everyone needs something they're good at. You want your kids to be passionate and figure out something they're good at. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Still a daughter. But soon, in hours apparently, I'll be nobody's daughter.
Surface lovliness was the outward visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.
Still a daughter. But soon, in hours apparently, I'll be nobody's daughter.
Parenting-a child must grow away from the parent
you must abandon ship in order to ... what? To exist, to be a "self" Becoming a person is the point. Being a child-that's an interim position. I neglected to break away. I remained the daughter. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

It is stories - both real and fictional - that can captivate hearts, change minds and, in the most powerful examples, spur action. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

I'm missing work. We didn't have enough money for preschool. I had a panic attack. I couldn't do it. I became one of those horrible foster parents who give the kids back. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Over time, we would learn each other and I would learn to love her like a mother loves a daughter, imperfectly and without roots. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

The only problem," he added, "is that it takes over an hour to cook."

"Over an hour!" The thought of waiting made my head hurt. I hadn't eaten since breakfast, and my stomach was empty to the point of nausea. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Common thistle is everywhere," she said. "Which is perhaps why human beings are so relentlessly unkind to one another. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

I had been loyal to nothing except the language of flowers. If I started lying about it, there would be nothing in my life that was beautiful or true. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

This is it, you know," she said. "Your life starts here. No one to blame but yourself from here on out. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

I could see Grant thinking about this, trying to grasp the chasm between the finality in my voice and his vision of our future, and bridging the divide with a combination of hope and lies. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

The problem is foster youth don't really have this network that other kids have. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

The names of common flowers change from decade to decade, so I spent a lot of time with old outdated dictionaries, with awful flower names like 'mouse-eared chickweed.' ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

We can become anyone we want to become. It takes focusing on the aspect of ourselves we want to change and reflecting on the beliefs that cause us to act in ways that are counter to the change we seek. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

You made a mistake. One fucking enormous, stupid mistake. That's all. Now get over it. Buck up and fix it, and if you can't fix it, keep going anyway. It's the only way to live. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Meredith Combs, the social worker responsible for selecting the stream of adoptive families that gave me back, wanted to talk to me about blame. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

My husband and I vowed that after we married and settled down, we would become foster parents - a vow we kept and one that has enriched our lives greatly. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

First drafts are never any good - at least, mine aren't. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Perhaps the unattached, the unwanted, the unloved, could grow to give love as lushly as anyone else. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Mistletoe. I surmount all obstacles. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Our standards for motherhood are so high that many of us harbor intense, secret guilt for every harsh word we speak to our children, every negative thought that enters our minds. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Coming up with the right questions was even more important than coming up with the right answers. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

I love Toni Morrison and Jeanette Winterson. 'The Passion' is my favourite book. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

The open forgiveness in her eyes, the uncensored love, terrified me. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

I did a minor in creative writing in college, but I didn't start writing until I stayed at home with my own children. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

I never really considered writing something that was nonfiction. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Do you really think you're the only human being alive who is unforgivably flawed? Who's been hurt almost to the point of breaking? ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

I am not only the person who wrote and sold a novel while raising a houseful of biological and foster children; I am also the person who wrote a horrific young adult novel that never sold and gave up on a foster child I couldn't handle - an experience that still haunts me. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

You have to really prove yourself to young people, and if your answer is clear and consistent and loving - even if it's angry and disappointed - what's important is that you're being real and honest and not going anywhere. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

I think that the hardest thing about working with young people in foster care who've been through this kind of neglect and abuse is really to convince them that they are worthy of being loved. And I think because often they don't feel worthy of it, that's why they push people away. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

I was unaccustomed to men in general, having spent my adolescence in all-female group homes with only an occasional male therapist or teacher, and I couldn't remember having ever been in such proximity to a man who was both young and handsome. Grant was so different from everything I was used to - from the size of his hands, heavy on the table, to the low, quiet voice that echoed into the silence between us. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Though politics is by nature divisive, surely we all can agree that foster children need stability, safety, education, opportunity - and love. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

So, what's your secret?" Renata asked.

I squinted my eyes in question, tightened my shoulders.

"To staying thin?" she asked. "When you eat like that?"

It's simple, I thought. Be broke, friendless, and homeless. Spend weeks eating other people's leftovers, or nothing at all. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

You should see the way she smiles when I rattle off the names of the orchids in the greenhouse: oncidium, dendrobium, bulbophyllum, and epidendrum, tickling her face with each blossom. I wouldn't be surprised if 'Orchidaceae' was her first word. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

I'm more of a thistle-peony-basil kind of girl. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

It wasn't as if the flowers themselves held within them the ability to bring an abstract definition into physical reality. Instead, it seemed that ... expecting change, and the very belief in the possibility instigated a transformation. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Writing has always been an interest of mine, and 'The Language of Flowers' combined my experience with foster care with something I've always wanted to do. ~ Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Jeffrey could be rough with me, and it was okay because I needed that from time to time. Needed to know I was his. ~ Vanessa North

Fear can make all of us do the wrong things sometimes. ~ Vanessa Paradis

To even get to the Olympics, I have to qualify for the 2013 World Championships and the standard is high. I know I am always going to be a few points behind the top guys. ~ Vanessa Mae

VanessaPlace Inc. is a trans-national corporation whose sole mission is to design and manufacture objects to meet the poetic needs of the human heart, face, and form. What is poetry really worth? What is poetry's purpose - personally, culturally, politically, financially? VanessaPlace offers a language-based solution to these and other dilemmas facing the culture business today. The poetry-products of VanessaPlace turn cultural capital into capitalized culture through a game-changing, dynamic shift of focus from manifesto to manifestation. ~ Vanessa Place

I was very lucky to be offered a lovely piece of property to build a career on. I started building a house on it, but it wasn't necessarily a house I would want to live in. So I ripped down that house, and I worked with these great lumberjacks to build a really cool cabin - a place I want to drink whiskey in and hang out until the sun rises. ~ Vanessa Carlton

I was for sure not prepared for fame when it happened. ~ Vanessa Paradis

The cousin was one of those bodies, one of those deaths Gareth tried to keep faceless. The torture of Narvel dying in his arms had been enough. A tired, bitter huff slipped from his lips. "So the lieutenant didn't punish his cousin and now all the colony suffers. When is everyone going to understand that one man's sacrifice is enough?" "They barely accepted one man's sacrifice in Galilee on an old rugged cross. How could they ever weigh the good that can come from realizing no person was more important than the rest? ~ Vanessa Riley

When Euan had got home the night before he hadn't ~ Vanessa Greene

New York is my home. ~ Vanessa Williams

Leslie Stephen died in 1904. In that year his children retreated to Wales for a period and then travelled in Italy. Vanessa and Virginia went on to Paris, where they met up with Clive Bell. On returning to London, Virginia suffered
a severe, suicidal breakdown. ~ Jane Goldman

By the close of the nineteenth century her studies with her father were being supplemented by tuition in the classics from Dr Warr of King's College, Kensington, and from Clara Pater, sister of the English essayist and
critic Walter Pater (1839–94). Woolf was very fond of Clara and an exchange between them later became the basis for her short story 'Moments of Being: Slater's Pins Have No Points' (1928). Thoby boarded at Clifton College,
Bristol, Adrian was a dayboy at Westminster School, and Vanessa attended Cope's School of Art. Thoby, and later Adrian, eventually went to Trinity College, Cambridge, and Vanessa undertook training in the visual arts (attending the Slade School of Fine Art for a while). From 1902 Virginia's tuition in classics passed from Clara Pater to the very capable Janet Case, one of the first graduates from Girton College, Cambridge, and a committed feminist. The sisters visited Cambridge a number of times to meet Thoby, whose friends there included Clive Bell 1881–1964), Lytton Strachey (1880– 1932), Leonard Woolf (1880–1969) and Saxon Sydney-Turner. ~ Jane Goldman

I want to let my fans get to know a little about me. I'm very thankful for everything they've done for me so, of course, I'm going to let them into my world a bit. But I really am a very private person, and I love kepping my life to myself - that's how I've always been. ~ Vanessa Hudgens

I did not stop dancing; I did take two years off to get myself together. ~ Vanessa Carlton

I don't believe you can say 'forever'; I don't believe it exists. ~ Vanessa Paradis

She held a scarlet sequin dress to her chest and posed in front of a mirror. Too hot. She put it back and took a black mini. Too dreary. Then a blue as pale as a whisper caught her eye. She took the dress. The material was silky and clinging. Perfect for a goddess. On the floor below the dress sat scrappy wraparound high-heeled sandals that matched the blue.
She didn't understand why she needed to dress up to meet Stanton but the impulse to steal into the storage room had been rising in her since the sun set.
She took the dress and sandals back to her room, then sat on the floor and painted her toenails and fingernails pale blue. She drew waves of eternal flames and spiral hearts in silver and blue around her ankles and up her legs with body paints.
When she was done, she pressed a Q-tip into glitter eye shadow and spread sparkles on her lid and below her eye. With a sudden impulse she swirled the lines over her temple and into her hairline. She liked the look.
She rolled blue mascara on her lashes, then brushed her hair and snapped crystals in the long blond strands. She squeezed glitter lotion into her palms and rubbed it on her shoulders and arms. Last she took the dress and stepped into it. She turned to the mirror on the closet door.
A thrill ran through her. Her reflection astonished her. She looked otherworldly, a mystical creature... eyes large, skin glowing, eyelashes longer, thicker. Everything about her was more powerful and sleek and fairy ~ Lynne Ewing

My style is boho chic. I love that time period - the patterns, the prints, the people, the music, the vibe. ~ Vanessa Hudgens

I don't mind about the boos from the audience. ~ Vanessa Mae

When faced with the choice to Love or Decieve, therein lies the path to the Heroes and Thieves. ~ Vanessa Carlton

I was not afraid of horror, I was afraid of beauty, of what it could do to me if I let it. ~ Vanessa Veselka

I feel like a lot of people think of Hollywood as being fake, but it's only perceived that way because it takes 10 people to make someone look the way that they do. In reality, they're there because they are doing what they're passionate about. ~ Vanessa Hudgens

What I didn't understand was that the personal and the political go together. I felt at the time I had to sacrifice my children's present for their future. It seemed an either/or. I didn't realise that by being with one's own children I would have had a better understanding of the ones who are not my own. I was thinking of them but I didn't spend the time that they needed from me. It's a tribute to them that they came out so well. ~ Vanessa Redgrave

Myles P. doesn't resist, he sinks down and down, letting the sound of Willard's lisp close over him light as a foaming wave and he drifts gently down, without a gurgle, past the floating beds of giant kelp and the abalone-eating otters, the unschooled senoritas and egg-filled cabezon, he thinks he might touch his toes to the bottom when he gets there and wonders if it will be mud or just more cement.

'Meaning other animals, shoot, soon as the young's able to hunt or run, mother takes off and dad's eyeing the offsprung for dinner. But we can't let ours be, colic to college, we're constantly wiping their little booger'd noses, dolling out free dough and freer advice, thinking they'll powder our own asses later in the home. But a baby's just a for-instance, fact is, others never tender the way you do. Species'd peter, rent'd come due.' Willard goes to Hiro, 'The punchline, my friend, is giving without wanting's the trick once you've managed that, you've partly pierced heaven a bunghole, but it's a pure penniless instigation that you ain't got 'n ain't gonna get got, 'n ain't gonna get it, not on no roadfuckingtrip.'

'Meaning?' says Hiro

'Meaning love's all true. ~ Vanessa Place

the bad you heard me might be true but then and again its might be fake from the bitch who told you .. ~ Vanessa

I feel like women have an easier time separating from their characters than men do. ~ Vanessa Hudgens

Married life must agree with you."

"Oh, yes," she replied. "It's been what every girl dreams of, what with all the gossip and scandal, and the awkward dinner parties with family members who flirt with one's new husband. No to mention capped off by a nice little break-in and attempted kidnapping. Truly, if I'd known it was going to be this much fun, I would have married a long time ago. ~ Vanessa Kelly

You could always industrialize," she refilled Jimmy's wine glass. "You know, get a job stunning chickens in a factory to earn the trust of the working class." Jimmy laughed again and accidentally spat Chablis on my legs. "It's a pretty silly idea, isn't it?" said Grace, getting a rag. "Leaping out of the closet in a crisis?" She lowered her voice, "Don't worry, sir. I'm a revolutionary socialist. Everything's going to be okay. ~ Vanessa Veselka

You can't be striving to please; you must be striving to get to the heart of the matter. ~ Vanessa Redgrave

Perhaps writing a story or a novel was not something that should be done for money, or to win praise, but for the sheer sensual pleasure of it. I liked that idea. It made me want to write lots of stories, to give myself that pleasure. ~ Vanessa Wu

I'd like to win an Oscar. ~ Vanessa Hudgens

It's a courageous thing to do something that doesn't have rules or limits. ~ Vanessa Paradis

But one day you're going to wake up to the smell of a friend making burnt toast and warm coffee, and you're going to smile with relief knowing you made it. Knowing somebody found ways to love you. ~ Vanessa Hogg

My children are grown now, they are more independent. ~ Vanessa Paradis

Instead of procrastinating to accomplish your tasks, do them as soon as you need to. ~ Vanessa Pagan

As an actress and just as a person, I've kind of been in a little bit of a bubble. So it was so great for me to see where I could go as an actress and to be around incredible people who are much more experienced than I am, like Harmony [Korine], James [Franco], and Vanessa [Hudgens]. ~ Selena Gomez

But whosh mocking who, Moan Sooie, who hung hope on me like a pre-lit fuse, I mean shit and goddamn, why supply a set of perfecktly good teeth then kick 'em, one by precious one, out of my sorry cranium? ~ Vanessa Place

Not everyone is lucky enough to be given space and trust. ~ Vanessa Paradis

I always used to watch 'Labyrinth' and 'The Neverending Story.' Those were like my two favorite movies that I would watch over and over and over again. ~ Vanessa Hudgens

I am not this big celebrity, but it gets really crazy. You have to go through the nuts of blowing up, in a sense, and then figuring out how to live your life with that. ~ Vanessa Carlton

And I think we created something incredible as a Democratic group, as a platform, as an effort to make a change in the country, and I think we did change this country. And I think we will continue to, and I know that my father is not going to stop fighting. ~ Vanessa Kerry

I'd like my readers to feel they want to follow my characters off the page at the end of the book. ~ Vanessa Couchman

I may have had a crush on Zac, but we are like brother and sister, so nothing would ever happen. ~ Vanessa Hudgens

I'm very obsessed with 'The Real Housewives' franchise. It's a bad obsession. ~ Vanessa Marano

Hello, darling," Alessandro smiled at her. Oh, that smile. Bree wanted to close her eyes, press her hands against her eyes and keep them shut forever so she wouldn't see that smile. She must have had the question on her face, the knowledge on her face because as she looked at him now, something flickered in his eyes. Guilt. Oh God. "Mommy, look. I make good bouncies. See?" Will said, dribbling the ball. "I gonna be a basset ball player when I gwoed up." The little boy's voice sounded far away as Bree narrowed in on Alessandro and the look in his eyes. "Brian. I want you and Vanessa to take Will and Gianni out for a little while." "Oh but we're having a good time out here, aren't we Gianni?" Alessandro asked, tickling Gianni who squealed and curled inward. "Now," Bree said, her voice tight. Will stopped bouncing the ball and held it against his chest looking at both of them, picking up on the angry tension that suddenly covered them all. "Uh oh. I tink mommy's mad." "I'm not leaving you alone in your condition, Bree. Alessandro, we just came from the hospital. Colin's awake," Brian informed him, his voice tight with anger. "You spoke to Colin?" Alessandro asked, meeting Bree's eyes. "I did. And Carrie." He looks like a cornered animal. And what do Dardanos do when they're cornered? They lie. They cheat. Oh God. "Fine, then can you just take the boys upstairs?" Bree said, speaking to Brian, but not moving her gaze from her husband. "Come on, guys. Let's go play upstairs for a w ~ E. Jamie

Everything fades away. Fucking world peace could be accomplished if everyone got enough head. ~ Vanessa Waltz