quindlen Quotes

“After all those years as a woman hearing 'not thin enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough, not this enough, not that enough,' almost overnight I woke up one morning and thought, 'I'm enough.'”

“The clearest explanation for the failure of any marriage is that the two people are incompatible that is, that one is male and the other female.”

“In the family sandwich, the older people and the younger ones can recognize one another as the bread. Those in the middle are, for a time, the meat.”

“I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.”

“Even as we enumerate their shortcomings, the rigor of raising children ourselves makes clear to us our mothers' incredible strength. We fear both. If they are not strong, who will protect us? If they are not imperfect, how can we equal them?”

“Women who marry early are often overly enamored of the kind of man who looks great in wedding pictures and passes the maid of honor his telephone number.”

“The clearest explanation for the failure of any marriage is that the two people are incompatible that is, that one is male and the other female.”

“I'm sure not afraid of success and I've learned not to be afraid of failure. The only thing I'm afraid of now is of being someone I don't like much.”

“The greatest public health threat for many American women is the men they live with.”

“I read and walked for miles at night along the beach, writing bad blank verse and searching endlessly for someone wonderful who would step out of the darkness and change my life. It never crossed my mind that that person could be me.”