Your children make it impossible to regret your past. They're its finest fruits. Sometimes the only ones. Anna Quindlen More Quotes by Anna Quindlen More Quotes From Anna Quindlen Don't ever forget the words on a postcard that my father sent me last year: "If you win the rat race, you're still a rat. Anna Quindlen race winning father But never fear, gentlemen; castration was really not the point of feminism, and we women are too busy eviscerating one another to take you on. Anna Quindlen feminism gentleman busy Consider the lilies of the field. Look at the fuzz on a baby's ear. Read in the backyard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a terminal illness because if you do you will live it with joy and passion, as it ought to be lived. Anna Quindlen passion happiness baby Behind every door in London there are stories, behind every one ghosts. The greatest writers in the history of the written word have given them substance, given them life. And so we readers walk, and dream, and imagine, in the city where imagination found its great home. Anna Quindlen dream home doors 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. Anna Quindlen not-afraid ive-learned congratulations The world is full of women blindsided by the unceasing demands of motherhood, still flabbergasted by how a job can be terrific and tortuous. Anna Quindlen family daughter mom The Church does an enormous amount of good, and it carries one of the most valuable messages imaginable - that you should love your neighbor as yourself, and that if you have two coats you should give one to the man who has none. Anna Quindlen love-you men two Sometimes I remind myself that I almost skipped the party, that I almost went to a different college, that the whim of a minute could have changed everything and everyone. Our lives, so settled, so specific, are built on happenstance. Anna Quindlen party college life 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 book children people London has the trick of making its past, its long indelible past, always a part of its present. And for that reason it will always have meaning for the future, because of all it can teach about disaster, survival, and redemption. It is all there in the streets. It is all there in the books. Anna Quindlen long book past I really feel like I'm a liberal because I'm a Catholic, because I took the words of the New Testament to heart. Anna Quindlen new-testament catholic heart People who wish to salute the free and independent side of their evolutionary character acquire cats. People who wish to pay homage to their servile and salivating roots own dogs. Anna Quindlen cat dog character There's some muscle group around your shoulders that seizes up during the perfection dance and doesn't let go until you are asleep, or alone. Or maybe it never really lets go at all. Anna Quindlen groups perfection letting-go People have writer's block not because they can't write, but because they despair of writing eloquently. Anna Quindlen block writing people I'm very optimistic. I think if you would describe me, my pretty consistent affect is that I'm a pretty happy person. Anna Quindlen describe-me optimistic thinking All of the qualities that you need to be a good opinion columnist tend to be qualities that aren't valued in women. Anna Quindlen quality opinion needs 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. Anna Quindlen marriage two people Here is the real domino theory - gay man to gay man, bisexual man to straight woman, addict mother to newborn baby, they all fall down and someday it will come to you. Anna Quindlen real mother baby The gender gap looks at this point like it's going to favor the president, particularly among white suburban women. I certainly think it's going to be an issue. But I think the single most important thing in this election will be turnout. Anna Quindlen gender-gap white thinking The age of technology has both revived the use of writing and provided ever more reasons for its spiritual solace. Emails are letters, after all, more lasting than phone calls, even if many of them r 2 cursory 4 u. Anna Quindlen technology spiritual writing