[In the aftermath of death] Small talk feels too small, big talk too enormous. Anna Quindlen More Quotes by Anna Quindlen More Quotes From Anna Quindlen Reading is not simply an intellectual pursuit but an emotional and spiritual one. It lights the candle in the hurricane lamp of self; that's why it survives Anna Quindlen emotional reading spiritual I think Americans suspect, without even being able to articulate it, that we're at the end of the American century; that we're at the end of the 100 or 125 or 150 years when we were the undisputed arbiter and leader of the world. Anna Quindlen leader years thinking I think a lot of people, but particularly a lot of women, get to this stage when I'd say they're over 50. We face a lot of hard judgment from the world, we women. If you're a full-time mother, you should be out working. If you're out working, your kids must be being overlooked. Anna Quindlen mother kids thinking While liberals had embraced Obama as someone who had left-wing progressive ideas, the truth is that by personality he's a very incremental guy. Anna Quindlen personality wings ideas I sometimes think that courage is the thing that you need more than any other thing. It's fear that cripples us. It's fear that accounts for racism, it's fear that accounts for sexism, for xenophobia. Anna Quindlen xenophobia racism thinking Well, I'd like to think I am, and I'd also like to think that we're all having a lot more fun getting older than we pretend. It was interesting to me when I first started working on this book that I'd mentioned that I was writing a memoir about aging and everybody would moan and groan and carry on. Anna Quindlen writing fun book There's a certain kind of conversation you have from time to time at parties in New York about a new book. The word "banal" sometimes rears its by-now banal head; you say "underedited," I say "derivative." The conversation goes around and around various literary criticisms, and by the time it moves on one thing is clear: No one read the book; we just read the reviews. Anna Quindlen party new-york moving I think when people keep saying to you, "You're good at this," you just keep doing it. Anna Quindlen people thinking Sometimes we don't see out of our peripheral vision what's coming right around the corner. Anna Quindlen corners vision sometimes There is only room in the lifeboat of your life for one, and you always choose yourself, and turn your parents into whatever it takes to keep you afloat. Anna Quindlen parent literature rooms I once wanted to be a personage. Now I am comfortable being a person. Anna Quindlen persons literature wanted Barack Obama is the kind of guy who likes to do things by inches, he's the kind of guy who likes to build consensus and compromise. Anna Quindlen compromise likes guy I believe that in a contest between the living and the almost living, the latter must, if necessary, give way to the will of the former. Anna Quindlen abortion giving believe The dark aftermath of the frontier, of the vast promise of possibility this country first offered, is an inflated sense of American entitlement today. We want what we want, and we want it now. Easy credit. Fast food. A straight shot down the interstate from point A to point B. The endless highway is crowded with the kinds of cars large enough to take a mountain pass in high snow. Instead they are used to take children from soccer practice to Pizza Hut. In the process they burn fuel like there's no tomorrow. Tomorrow's coming. Anna Quindlen soccer country children [I]n contrast to the common belief that they are the world's greatest cynics, the best journalists are the world's great idealists. They have experienced firsthand the great soothing balance of human existence. For every disgrace there is triumph, for every wrong there is a moment of justice, for every funeral a wedding, for every obituary a birth announcement. Anna Quindlen funeral balance justice I think we now know the limits also of intelligence and rhetoric. Anna Quindlen rhetoric limits thinking One of the useful things about age is realizing conventional wisdom is often simply inertia with a candy coating of conformity. Anna Quindlen conformity realizing age Every reader, I suspect, has a book like this somewhere in his or her past, a book that seemed to hold within it, at that moment, all the mysteries of the universe. Anna Quindlen mystery book past Catastrophe is numerical. Loss is singular, one beloved at a time. Anna Quindlen catastrophe beloved loss Barack Obama presents as kind of a cool character, and I think that that's his natural personality. Anna Quindlen personality character thinking
![[In the aftermath of death] Small talk feels too small, big talk... by Anna Quindlen](https://whatsmyquote.com/images/quote-medium-quote-955e589ec2514e36f8500efd2b2f7d13.jpg)
![](https://service.weibo.com/share/share.php?url=https://whatsmyquote.com/quote/i-think-when-people-keep-saying-to-you-you-re-good-at-this-you-just-keep-doing-it&appkey=&title=Anna Quindlen quote: I think when people keep saying to you, "You're good at this," you just keep do...&pic=https://whatsmyquote.com/images/quote-cd4764ee7e8294308992ef747cd1449c.jpg&ralateUid=&language=zh_cn){kind=link}
![](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://whatsmyquote.com/quote/i-think-when-people-keep-saying-to-you-you-re-good-at-this-you-just-keep-doing-it&description=I think when people keep saying to you, "You're good at this," you just keep doing it.&media=https://whatsmyquote.com/images/quote-cd4764ee7e8294308992ef747cd1449c.jpg){kind=link}
