I've always had a certain facility with words. Anna Quindlen More Quotes by Anna Quindlen More Quotes From Anna Quindlen The life you have led doesn't need to be the only life you have. Anna Quindlen inspirational life funny In books I have traveled, not only to other worlds but into my own. I learned who I was and who I wanted to be, what I might aspire to, and what I might dare to dream about my world and myself. Anna Quindlen other-worlds dream book Ideas are like pizza dough, made to be tossed around. Anna Quindlen literature made ideas We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming, our own consciousness in someone else's mind. Anna Quindlen reading mind dream My most pronounced writing habit is trying not to write. Anna Quindlen habit writing trying There is a little boy inside the man who is my brother... Oh, how I hated that little boy. And how I love him too. Anna Quindlen sister brother inspirational If you want to write what the world is about, you have to write details...real life is in the dishes. Real life is pushing strollers up the street, folding T-shirts, the alarm clock going off early and you dropping into bed exhausted every night. That's real life. Anna Quindlen real writing night 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 independent-bookstores children thinking I think that after a while you realize that your husband can't be all things to you and certainly you don't want the kids to be all things to you, because that would be a terrible weight for them; and that where you really find solace a lot of the time is with your girlfriends. Anna Quindlen girlfriend husband kids And sometimes you do everything right and something bad just happens. It's as simple, and as scary, as that. Anna Quindlen scary simple sometimes Don't ever confuse the two, your life and your work. The second is only part of the first. Anna Quindlen graduation inspirational two 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 You teach your 16-year-old with your heart in your mouth to be a good driver and none of that makes any difference when some drunk comes around a corner and runs a stop sign. Anna Quindlen heart running years You are the only person alive who has sole custody of your life ... Your entire life ... Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank account, but your soul. Anna Quindlen soul mind heart [After my mother died, I had a feeling that was] not unlike the homesickness that always filled me for the first few days when I went to stay at my grandparents'' house, and even, I was stunned to discover, during the first few months of my freshman year at college. It was not really the home my mother had made that I yearned for. But I was sick in my soul for that greater meaning of home that we understand most purely when we are children, when it is a metaphor for all possible feelings of security, of safety, of what is predictable, gentle, and good in life. Anna Quindlen mother home children I was doing the family grocery shopping accompanied by two children, an event I hope to see included in the Olympics in the near future. Anna Quindlen shopping two children I think I'm like most novelists in that my books have gotten farther and farther away from autobiography the longer I've been writing them. Anna Quindlen writing book thinking Look back, to slavery, to suffrage, to integration and one thing is clear. Fashions in bigotry come and go. The right thing lasts. Anna Quindlen racist fashion looks Your kids are launched. You love your work but you understand how to place it in the panorama of the rest of your life. There's this line in the book, and when I wrote it I thought yes, that's it - if you think of life as a job, maybe by the time you get to, say, in my case, 60, you've finally gotten good at it. Anna Quindlen love-you jobs book You cannot be really first-rate at your work if your work is all you are. Anna Quindlen design inspirational firsts