“I thought I had a handle on my future. But the future, it turns out, is not a tote bag.” — Anna Quindlen Future Copy Share Image
“There are ways and ways of dying, and some of them leave you walking around.” — Anna Quindlen Death Copy Share Image
“reading has as many functions as the human body, and... not all of them are cerebral.” — Anna Quindlen Cerebral Copy Share Image
Life is made up of moments, small pieces of glittering mica in a long stretch of gray cement. — Anna Quindlen Cement Copy Share Image
“...there is a piece of me missing so big that the pain doubles me over, clawing at my gut...” — Anna Quindlen Pain Copy Share Image
America is a country that seems forever to be toddler or teenager, at those two stages of human development characterized by conflict… — Anna Quindlen America Copy Share Image
These are my words; this is their world, a world in which we can wear our gender on our sleeves, unabashedly, as… — Anna Quindlen Business Copy Share Image
Ethnic stereotypes are misshapen pearls, sometimes with a sandy grain of truth at their center. ... but they ignore complexity, change, and individuality. — Anna Quindlen Change Copy Share Image
I would be the most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly… — Anna Quindlen Bookshelves Copy Share Image
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 Consistent Copy Share Image
There is little premium in poetry in a world that thinks of Pound and Whitman as a weight and a sampler, not… — Anna Quindlen Beauty Copy Share Image
“It turned out that when my younger self thought of taking wing, she wanted only to let her spirit soar. Books are… — Anna Quindlen Books Copy Share Image
Reading is another thing that has made me more human by exposing me to worlds I might never have entered and people… — Anna Quindlen Exposing Copy Share Image
“And then sometimes we become one of those people and are amazed, not by our own strength but by that indomitable ability… — Anna Quindlen Adversity Copy Share Image
“I mark my years or parenting by the people who stepped in and forced me to abandon my inclination to meddle, micromanage,… — Anna Quindlen Children Copy Share Image
The beginning and the end are never really the journey of discovery for me. It is the middle that remains a puzzle… — Anna Quindlen Beginning Copy Share Image
“It is the glory of London that it is always ending and beginning anew, and that a visitor, with a good eye… — Anna Quindlen Books Copy Share Image
But while ignorance can make you insensitive, familiarity can also numb. Entering the second half-century of an information age, our cumulative knowledge… — Anna Quindlen Age Copy Share Image
It makes me angry to think that . . . female sanitation workers will spend their days doing a job most of… — Anna Quindlen Angry Copy Share Image
If you raise an intelligent girl she will become a feminist because of the facts of her own life. Raising feminist boys… — Anna Quindlen Boys Copy Share Image
Your hair isn't quite right and maybe you're a size bigger than you should be and on and on and on. I… — Anna Quindlen Bigger Copy Share Image
The best thing about Sassy Seats is that grandmothers cannot figure out how they work and are in constant fear of the… — Anna Quindlen Aspect Copy Share Image
Having children can smooth the relationship, too. Mother and daughter are now equals. That is hard to imagine, even harder to accept,… — Anna Quindlen Accepting Copy Share Image
“How many times in the past three months have I been reminded of Ruby's two selves, the careful courteous young woman who… — Anna Quindlen Real woman Copy Share Image
“The rituals surrounding vacations among Manhattan's wealthiest and best-connected citizens are strange and specific. By vacations I don't mean country houses, which… — Anna Quindlen Ebb and flow Copy Share Image
“One of the greatest glories of growing older is the willingness to ask why and, getting no good answer, deciding to follow… — Anna Quindlen Conventional wisdom Copy Share Image
I think at every moment in the last probably 100 years, when the institutional church had the opportunity to do the right… — Anna Quindlen Church Copy Share Image
“valley? That should be interesting for you.” “I haven’t decided what I’m doing yet.” “I’d be happy to help,” Mr. Bally said.… — Anna Quindlen Gaze Copy Share Image
“Someday, sometime, you will be sitting somewhere. A berm overlooking a pond in Vermont. The lip of the Grand Canyon at sunset.… — Anna Quindlen Black hole Copy Share Image
When men do the dishes, it's called helping. When women do the dishes, it is called life. — Anna Quindlen Cleaning Copy Share Image
Decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. — Anna Quindlen Books for kids Copy Share Image
In books I have traveled, not only to other worlds, but into my own. — Anna Quindlen Book Copy Share Image
If men got pregnant, there would be safe, reliable methods of birth control. They'd be cheap, too. — Anna Quindlen Birth Copy Share Image
I do think there's some aspect of being a novelist that is a little crazy making. — Anna Quindlen Aspect Copy Share Image
“There are only two ways, really, to become a writer. One is to write. The other is to read.” — Anna Quindlen Books Copy Share Image
Life is so messy that the temptation to straighten it up is very strong. And the results always illusory. — Anna Quindlen Illusory Copy Share Image
