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That is how you know you've left childhood behind-when you wish for time to go backward.
Alice Hoffman
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Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote suggests that nostalgia for the past marks the end of childhood.

Alice Hoffman’s quote reflects on the transition from childhood to adulthood, indicating that true maturity is often accompanied by a longing for simpler times. As individuals grow and take on responsibilities, they may find themselves yearning for the carefree days of their youth, highlighting the bittersweet nature of growing up and accepting the passage of time.

Themes

ChildhoodNostalgiaTimeGrowthMaturity

In practice

Example use cases

This quote could be shared at a graduation speech reflecting on the passage from youth to adulthood.

More from Alice Hoffman

I think we are bound to, and by, nature. We may want to deny this connection and try to believe we control the external world, but every time there's a snowstorm or drought, we know our fate is tied to the world around us
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Before she realized he was next to her, he had placed his hands over hers on the countertop, then hooped his fingers through hers. Gretel looked up at him, so startled she might as well have been shot. 'I just wanted to wake you up', he said. Which is exactly what he did. One look at him and her heart was racing. One look, and whatever had been before was all over.
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Do people choose the art that inspires them β€” do they think it over, decide they might prefer the fabulous to the real? For me, it was those early readings of fairy tales that made me who I was as a reader and, later on, as a storyteller.
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I never plot out my novels in terms of the tone of the book. Hopefully, once a story is begun it reveals itself
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My theory is that everyone at one time or another has been at the fringe of society in some way: an outcast in high school, a stranger in a foreign country, the best at something, the worst at something, the one who's different. Being an outsider is the one thing we all have in common.
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My grandmother told me once that when you lose somebody you think you've lost the whole world as well, but that's not the way things turn out in the end. Eventually, you pick yourself up and look out the window, and once you do you see everything that was there before the world ended is out there still. There are the same apple trees and the same songbirds, and over our heads, the very same sky that shines like heaven, so far above us we can never hope to reach such heights.
Alice HoffmanRead

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