Anne Tyler Quotes

“But if you never did anything you couldn't undo you'd end up doing nothing at all.”

“I read so I can live more than one life in more than one place.”

“It struck her all at once that dealing with other human beings was an awful lot of work.”

“She was good at talking with young people. She seemed to view them as interesting foreigners.”

“There is no sound more peaceful than rain on the roof, if you're safe asleep in someone else's house.”

“Bravest thing about people is how they go on loving mortal beings after finding out there's such a thing as dying.”

“It is very difficult to live among people you love and hold back from offering them advice.”

“One sad thing about this world is that the acts that take the most out of you are usually the ones that people will never know about.

(from 'Celestial Navigation')”

“It is not how much you love someone, but who you are when you are with him.”

“I've never quite believed that one chance is all I get”

“Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.”

“It's true that writing is a solitary occupation, but you would be surprised at how much companionship a group of imaginary characters can offer once you get to know them.”

“When you have children, you're obligated to live.”

“He wished he had inhabited more of his life, used it better, filled it fuller.”

“Ever consider what pets must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul - chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we're the greatest hunters on earth!”

“If I waited till I felt like writing, I'd never write at all.”

“(The unsatisfying thing about practicing restraint was that nobody knew you were practicing it.)”

“It seems to me that since I've had children, I've grown richer and deeper. They may have slowed down my writing for a while, but when I did write, I had more of a self to speak from.”

“I'm falling into disrepair”