There is a lot of talk now about metal detectors and gun control. Both are good things. But they are no more a solution than forks and spoons are a solution to world hunger. Anna Quindlen More Quotes by Anna Quindlen More Quotes From Anna Quindlen Now the baby boomers, i.e., us, are getting older, and were suddenly discovering that there are great things about getting older. You have time for your friendships and you appreciate them in ways that you didn't before. Anna Quindlen getting-older appreciate baby One of the interesting things I discovered, talking about your grandmother, is I did a search of my uses of the word "elderly" in my copy over the years, and you will not be surprised to hear that the older I got the less often I used the word elderly in print. Anna Quindlen elderly grandmother talking We take our vitamins, we go to exercise class, we put on our seat belts. And then something blindsides us and gives the lie to our carefully constructed facade of safety. Anna Quindlen exercise class lying If I had to guess what the new Etch-A-Sketch picture is going to be like, it's going to be considerably less to the right. Romney has backed himself into a couple of corners that I don't think will serve him well in the general election, the main one being very harsh stands on immigration, which I think are not only short-sighted but to my mind immoral. Anna Quindlen couple mind thinking However, there will be a Republican Party platform that will coalesce around their convention. Unless I miss my guess, it will be considerably more conservative on these issues, perhaps even than Governor Romney is, and I think that that will give Americans a clear set of choices about all issues, but about women's issues too. Anna Quindlen issues party thinking My father really, really pushed me to excel in a way that I resented for years and then realized had really worked for me. Anna Quindlen father way years I think what saved me, as a writer, is that there are really two breaking points in my life. One was when I was 19 and my mother died, and one was when I was 31 and my first child was born. And that sort of gave me a kind of rebirth that I think has been invaluable to me as a novelist, in terms of seeing the world anew. Anna Quindlen mother children thinking I don't really read what people write about me. Someone gives my novel one star; are they a troll? Are they someone who hates my politics and so has decided to do that? Anna Quindlen hate stars writing You just can't tell or calibrate motive or intelligence or sense. So I don't read anything unless someone tells me that it's really smart or illuminating. I don't read any reviews anymore and it's been really liberating. Anna Quindlen reviews motive smart I think that we really fool ourselves about our ability to be safe and secure nowadays. Anna Quindlen fool safe thinking We almost manage to forget that things happen that we don't anticipate. Anna Quindlen anticipate happens forget I've always had a certain facility with words. Anna Quindlen facility certain I never think about issues when I'm working on a novel. Issues are things that happen to people in sufficient numbers to elicit widespread attention; in other words, they're just life happening. That's what I think about: life, and telling a story. Anna Quindlen issues numbers thinking My father expected his first child to be a boy, and when it didn't turn out that way he didn't let the fact get in the way of a good story. Anna Quindlen boys father children People ask me all the time if I'm from a family of writers. The literal short answer is no, but my father and his brothers and sisters and his mother are all people who would sit around with a Tom Collins and tell stories that seemed to get better and better each time they told them. Anna Quindlen brother mother father I grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia and one of the things I like to say is that one of the biggest impediments I had to becoming a successful writer is I had a very happy childhood. Anna Quindlen philadelphia childhood successful Novels are usually built on conflict, sometimes very, very difficult conflict. It's why men write war novels - because there you go, there's the conflict writ large. Anna Quindlen writing men war figuring out who you are is the whole part of the human exprience Anna Quindlen If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all. Anna Quindlen Women are the glue that hold our day-to-day world together. Anna Quindlen
