Jeannette Walls citations

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“She had her addictions and one of them was reading.”

“Life's too short to care about what other people think. Besides, they should accept us for who we are”

“You should never hate anyone, even your worst enemies. Everyone has something good about them. You have to find the redeeming quality and love the person for that.”

“Most important thing in life is learning how to fall.”

“Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy. You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more.”

“Nobody's perfect. We're all just one step up from the beasts and one step down from the angels.”

“…. 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.”

“One benefit of Summer was that each day we had more light to read by.”

“If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim”

“Sometimes you need a little crisis to get your adrenaline flowing and help you realize your potential.”

“Once you'd resolved to go, there was nothing to it at all.”

“If you want to be reminded of the love of the Lord, just watch the 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.”

“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.”

“People are like animals. Some are happiest penned in, some need to roam free. You go to recognize what's in her nature and accept it.”

“Sometimes you have to get sicker before you can get better.”

“Years from now, when all the junk they got is broken and long forgotten, you'll still have your stars.”

“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.”

“We laughed about all the kids who believed in the Santa Clause myth and got nothing but a bunch of cheap plastic toys. 'Years from now, when all the junk they got is broken and long forgotten,' Dad said, ' you'll still have your stars.”

“The fact is, you don't love me, and you haven't destroyed me. You don't have what it takes to do that.”

“Look at the way you live. You've sold out. Next thing I know you'll become a Republican." She shook her head. "Where are the values I raised you with?”

“Memoir is about handing over you life to someone and saying, This is what I went through, this is who I am, and maybe you can learn something from it.”

“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?”

“Whoever coined the phrase 'a man's got to play the hand that was dealt him' was most certainly one piss-poor bluffer.”

“Teaching is a calling too. And I've always thought that teachers in their way are holy - angels leading their flocks out of the darkness.”

“That was the thing to remember about all monsters, They love to frighten
people, but the minute you stare them down, they turn tail and run.”