Anna Quindlen Quotes

Quotes about:

• Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.

  Anna Quindlen

  Travel, Book, Reading

  Anna Quindlen (2010). “How Reading Changed My Life”, p.70, Ballantine Books

  72 Copy quote

• The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.

  Anna Quindlen

  Confidence, Letting Go, Being Yourself

  Anna Quindlen (2009). “Being Perfect”, p.15, Random House

  102 Copy quote

• Since the age of five I had been one of those people who was an indefatigable reader, more inclined to go off by myself with a book than do any of the dozens of things that children usually do to amuse themselves. I never aged out of it.

  Anna Quindlen

  Children, Book, People

  Anna Quindlen (2006). “Imagined London: A Tour of the World's Greatest Fictional City”, p.7, National Geographic Books

  4 Copy quote

• Life is not so much about beginnings and endings as it is about going on and on and on. It is about muddling through the middle.

  Anna Quindlen

  Literature, Life Is, Middle

  Anna Quindlen (2010). “Living Out Loud”, p.20, Ballantine Books

  33 Copy quote

• Acts of bravery don't always take place on battlefields. They can take place in your heart, when you have the courage to honor your character, your intellect, your inclinations, and yes, your soul by listening to its clean, clear voice of direction instead of following the muddied messages of a timid world.

  Anna Quindlen

  Courage, Heart, Character

  32 Copy quote

• Don't ever confuse the two, your life and your work. The second is only part of the first.

  Anna Quindlen

  Inspirational, Graduation, Two

  Anna Quindlen (2002). “A Short Guide to a Happy Life”, Arrow/Children's (a Division of Random House Group)

  16 Copy quote

• I got a fortune cookie that said, "To remember is to understand." I have never forgotten it. A good judge remembers what it was like to be a lawyer. A good editor remembers being a writer. A good parent remembers what it was like to be a child.

  Anna Quindlen

  Life, Children, Editors

  38 Copy quote

• One of the useful things about age is realizing conventional wisdom is often simply inertia with a candy coating of conformity.

  Anna Quindlen

  Age, Conformity, Realizing

  Anna Quindlen (2012). “Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake: A Memoir of a Woman's Life”, p.42, Random House

  5 Copy quote

• Look around at the azaleas making fuchsia star bursts in spring; look at a full moon hanging silver in a black sky on a cold night. And realize that life is glorious, and that you have no business taking it for granted.

  Anna Quindlen

  Stars, Spring, Moon

  Anna Quindlen (2002). “A Short Guide to a Happy Life”, Arrow/Children's (a Division of Random House Group)

  23 Copy quote

• 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.'

  Anna Quindlen

  Morning, Women, Smart

  88 Copy quote

• I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned that this is not a dress rehearsal, and that today is the only guarantee you get.

  Anna Quindlen

  Life, Journey, Dresses

  Anna Quindlen (2002). “A Short Guide to a Happy Life”, Arrow/Children's (a Division of Random House Group)

  16 Copy quote

• Today is the only guarantee you get.

  Anna Quindlen

  Guarantees, Today

  Anna Quindlen (2002). “A Short Guide to a Happy Life”, Arrow/Children's (a Division of Random House Group)

  6 Copy quote

• Ideas are like pizza dough, made to be tossed around.

  Anna Quindlen

  Ideas, Literature, Made

  18 Copy quote

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

  Anna Quindlen

  Children, Thinking, Independent Bookstores

  Anna Quindlen (2010). “Thinking Out Loud: On the Personal, the Political, the Public and the Private”, p.119, Ballantine Books

  93 Copy quote

• The difference between government and leadership is that leadership has a soul.

  Anna Quindlen

  Leadership, Government, Differences

  Anna Quindlen (2010). “Thinking Out Loud: On the Personal, the Political, the Public and the Private”, p.183, Ballantine Books

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Anna Quindlen

  Life, Beach, Ocean

  Anna Quindlen (2010). “Living Out Loud”, p.11, Ballantine Books

  10 Copy quote

• being a parent is not transaction ... we do not get what we give. It is the ultimate pay-it-forward endeavor: we are good parents not so they will be loving enough to stay with us but so they will be strong enough to leave us.

  Anna Quindlen

  Strong, Giving, Parent

  22 Copy quote

• So much of what you take for granted is the bedrock of happiness.

  Anna Quindlen

  Happiness, Granted, Bedrock

  "Anna Quindlen discusses 'A Short Guide To A Happy Life'". BookBrowse interview, www.bookbrowse.com.

  9 Copy quote

• A man who builds his own pedestal had better use strong cement.

  Anna Quindlen

  Wisdom, Strong, Men

  28 Copy quote

• The life you have led doesn't need to be the only life you have.

  Anna Quindlen

  Inspirational, Funny, Life

  28 Copy quote

• Our love of lockstep is our greatest curse, the source of all that bedevils us. It is the source of homophobia, xenophobia, racism, sexism, terrorism, bigotry of every variety and hue, because it tells us there is one right way to do things, to look, to behave, to feel, when the only right way is to feel your heart hammering inside you and to listen to what its timpani is saying.

  Anna Quindlen

  Xenophobia, Heart, Racism

  Anna Quindlen (2004). “Loud and Clear”, p.151, Random House

  73 Copy quote

• In a democratic society, the only treason is silence.

  Anna Quindlen

  Silence, Democratic, Treason

  Anna Quindlen (2004). “Loud and Clear”, p.102, Random House

  14 Copy quote

• We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming, our own consciousness in someone else's mind.

  Anna Quindlen

  Dream, Reading, Mind

  Anna Quindlen (2010). “How Reading Changed My Life”, p.20, Ballantine Books

  10 Copy quote

• I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make my marriage vows mean what they say. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh.

  Anna Quindlen

  Marriage, Husband, Mean

  Anna Quindlen (2002). “A Short Guide to a Happy Life”, Arrow/Children's (a Division of Random House Group)

  21 Copy quote

• Real friends offer both hard truths and soft landings and realize that it's sometimes more important to be nice than to be honest.

  Anna Quindlen

  Friendship, Real, Nice

  Anna Quindlen (2012). “Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake: A Memoir of a Woman's Life”, p.32, Random House

  6 Copy quote

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