“[Books] were the world I could lose myself in when the one I was actually in became too lonely or harsh or… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
“We need books, and Cheryl’s books in particular, because we are all, in the private kingdom of our hearts, desperate for the… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
You have to surrender to your mediocrity, and just write. Because it's hard, really hard, to write even a crappy book. But… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
“If you had to give one piece of advice to people in their twenties, what would it be? To go to a… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
“How can a book describe the psychological factors a person must prepare for . . . the despair, the alienation, the anxiety… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
Don't lament so much about how your career is going to turn out. You don't have a career. You have a life.… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
Of course some people manage to write books really young and publish really young. But for most writers, it takes several years… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
“You can’t take a class if taking a class feels like it’s going to kill you. Faking it never works. If you… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
A few times a year I'll remember that I love old literature, too. Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre" is one of my 10… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
With fiction, it could be about anything. It just has to be good writing, like Maria Semple's "Where'd You Go, Bernadette," which… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
Writing is such a strangely and radically private act, and yet its purpose is this great sense of connection and community. I… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
One of the scandalous things I did was as I read them afterward I would burn them. I loved them, but for… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
“[Books] were the world I could lose myself in when the one I was actually living in became too lonely or harsh… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
“She understands that attention is the first and final act of love, and that the ultimate dwindling resource in the human arrangement isn’t cheap… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
“The most terrible and beautiful and interesting things happen in life. For some of you, those things have already happened. Whatever happens to you… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
Of course you want someone special to love you. A majority of the people who write to me inquire about how they can get… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
It's still true that literary works by women, gays, and writers of color are often framed as specific, rather than universal, small rather than… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
“And you have to do it no matter what is true. No matter what is hard.” — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
“Don’t listen to those people who suggest you should be “over” your daughter’s death by now. The people who squawk the loudest about such… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
“. . . there was the actual doing it, quickly followed by the grim realization of what it meant to do it, followed by… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
He was the most ordinary man in all the world, and yet in her memory he'd become luminous, like the prince in a fairy… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
Love is our essential nutrient. Without it, life has little meaning. It's the best thing we have to give and the most valuable thing… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
“I never believed the boys were angry. I believed they were hurt and anger was the safest manifestation of their sorrow. It was the… — Cheryl Strayed Copy Share Image
