I tell you, life is extraordinary. A few years ago I couldn’t write anything or sell anything, I’d passed the age where you know all the returns are in, I’d had my chance and done my best and failed. And how was I to know the miracle waiting to happen round the corner in late middle age? 84, Charing Cross Road was no best seller, you understand; it didn’t make me rich or famous. It just got me hundreds of letters and phone calls from people I never knew existed; it got me wonderful reviews; it restored a self-confidence and self-esteem I’d lost somewhere along the way, God knows how many years ago. It brought me to England. It changed my life. Helene Hanff
About This Quote

The greatest glory in living isn’t in never falling, but in rising every time you fall. It is the act of getting up and fighting again for your dreams. You can make mistakes, you can fail, but it is all part of life’s journey.

Source: The Duchess Of Bloomsbury Street

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More Quotes By Helene Hanff
  1. I tell you, life is extraordinary. A few years ago I couldn’t write anything or sell anything, I’d passed the age where you know all the returns are in, I’d had my chance and done my best and failed. And how was I to know...
  2. I love inscriptions on flyleaves and notes in margins, I like the comradely sense of turning pages someone else turned, and reading passages someone long gone has called my attention to.
  3. Standing there, staring at the long shelves crammed with books, I felt myself relax and was suddenly at peace.
  4. It looks too new and pristine ever to have been read by anyone else, but it has been: it keeps falling open at the most delightful places as the ghost of its former owner points me to things I've never read before.
  5. If you happen to pass by 84 Charing Cross Road, kiss it for me? I owe it so much.
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