Jeannette Walls
Things usually work out in the end." "What if they don't?" "That just means you haven't come to the end yet.Collection: Mean
Horses were never wrong. They always did what they did for a reason, and it was up to you to figure it out.Collection: Inspirational
Life's too short to care about what other people think. Besides, they should accept us for who we areCollection: Thinking
One benefit of Summer was that each day we had more light to read by.Collection: Summer
I wanted to let the world know that no one had a perfect life, that even the people who seemed to have it all had their secrets.Collection: People
Sometimes you need a little crisis to get your adrenaline flowing and help you realize your potential.Collection: Needs
Most important thing in life is learning how to fall.Collection: Life
If you don't think you're hurt, then you aren'tCollection: Hurt
I hadn’t been paying much attention to things like the sunrise, but that old sun had been coming up anyway. It didn’t really care how I felt, it was going to rise and set regardless of whether I noticed it, and if I was going to enjoy it, that was up to me.Collection: Sunrise
Interesting people always have a past.Collection: Past
You can't cling to the side your whole life, that one lesson every parent needs to teach a child is "If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swimCollection: Children
I lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire. It was the sort of knowledge that kept you on your toes.Collection: Fire
God deals us all different hands. How we play 'em is up to us.Collection: Hands
No one expected you to amount to much," she told me. "Lori was the smart one, Maureen the pretty one, and Brian the brave one. You never had much going for you except that you always worked hard.Collection: Smart
But no matter how much planning you do, one tiny miscalculation, one moment of distraction, can end it all in an instant.Collection: Matter
Sometimes you have to get sicker before you can get better.Collection: Get Better
Confidence doesn't come from thinking you're perfect or flawless. That's arrogance. Confidence comes from appreciating the beauty of your texture.Collection: Thinking
Mom always said people worried too much about their children. Suffering when you are young is good for you, she said. It immunized your body and your soul.Collection: Mom
You can't prepare for everything life's going to throw at you. And you can't avoid danger. It's there. The world is a dangerous place, and if you sit around wringing your hands about it, you'll out on all the adventure.Collection: Adventure
You have to find the redeeming quality and love the person for that.Collection: Quality
Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy. You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more.Collection: Drama
But the positive thoughts would give way to negative thoughts, and the negative thoughts seemed to swoop into her mind the way a big flock of black crows takes over the landscape, sitting thick in the trees and on the fence rails and lawns, staring at you in ominous silence.Collection: Giving
Anyone who thinks he's too small to make a difference has never been bit by a mosquitoCollection: Thinking
When God closes a door, he opens a window, but it's up to you to find it.Collection: Doors
It's the Joshua tree's struggle that gives it its beauty.Collection: Struggle
When people kill themselves, they think they're ending the pain, but all they're doing is passing it on to those they leave behind.Collection: Suicide
You're in a horse race but you're thinking like a sheep. Sheep don't win horse races.Collection: Horse
The best time to tell your story is when you have to tell your story. When it's not really a choice. But then, when you get that first, messy, complicated version down, you have to read it over and be very tough on yourself and ask, 'Well what's the story here?' If you're lucky enough to have someone you trust looking over your shoulder, he or she can help you if [you] lack perspective on your own story.Collection: Writing
Maybe I should have cut him some slack. With his broken wing and lifetime of eating roadkill, he probably had a lot to be ungrateful about. Too much hard luck can create a permanent meanness of spirit in any creature.Collection: Cutting
No child is born a delinquent. They only became that way if nobody loved them when they were kids. Unloved children grow up to be serial murderers or alcoholics.Collection: Children
In this world, it's not enough to have a fine education. You need a piece of paper to prove you got it.Collection: Needs
When someone's wounded, the first order of business is to stop the bleeding. You can figure out later how best to help them heal.Collection: Order
It's really not that hard to put food on the table if that's what you decide to do.Collection: Tables
The fact is, you don't love me, and you haven't destroyed me. You don't have what it takes to do that.Collection: Facts
Life there was hard and it made people hard.Collection: People
Sometimes something catastrophic can occur in a split second that changes a person's life forever; other times one minor incident can lead to another and then another and another, eventually setting off just as big a change in a body's life.Collection: Forever
....he said it was interesting. He used the word 'textured'. He said 'smooth' is boring but 'textured' was interesting, and the scar meant that I was stronger than whatever had tried to hurt me.Collection: Hurt
I feel like I failed," I said. "Don't beat yourself up," Jim said. "She might not have turned out like you planned, but that don't mean she turned out wrong.Collection: Mean
In my opinion, trying to guess what readers want is the wrong approach. You have to tell your story as best you can and as true to yourself as possible. You have to be honest and fair and vulnerable and foolish and brave, and not care what anyone thinks of it.Collection: Writing
Dad was a philosopher and had what he called his Theory of Purpose, which held that everything in life had a purpose, and unless it achieved that purpose, it was just taking up space on the planet and wasting everybody's time.Collection: Dad
Why spend the afternoon making a meal that will be gone in an hour," she'd ask us, "when in the same amount of time, I can do a painting that will last forever?Collection: Forever
...even though I was getting better education at home than any of the kids in Toyah, I'd need to go to finishing school when I was thirteen, both to acquire social graces and to earn a diploma. Because in this world, Dad said, it's not enough to have a fine education. You need a piece of paper to prove you go it.Collection: Dad
Years from now, when all the junk they got is broken and long forgotten, you'll still have your stars.Collection: Stars
I hate Erma," I told Mom... "You have to show compassion for her..." She added that you should never hate anyone, even your worst enemies. "Everyone has something good about them," she said. "You have to find the redeeming quality and love the person for that." "Oh yeah?" I said. "How about Hitler? What was his redeeming quality?" "Hitler loved dogs," Mom said without hesitation.Collection: Mom
[Optimism] acts as a self-fulfilling prophecy.Collection: Optimistic
If you want to be treated like a mother, act like one.Collection: Mother
If you want to be reminded of the love of the Lord, just watch the sunrise.Collection: Sunrise
You didn't need a college degree to become one of the people who knew what was really going on. If you paid attention, you could pick things up on your own.Collection: College
Unlike diamonds, watches were practical. They were for people on the run, people with appointments to keep and schedules to meet.Collection: Running