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" At Home in the World is the story of a young woman, raised in some difficult circumstances, and how she survives. It tells a story of redemption, not victimhood. "

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" I was giving a speech one time, and the woman who introduced me said, 'Well, she used to be J. D. Salinger's girlfriend. I thought, 'God, is that all I've been?' I didn't want to be reduced to that. "

Joyce Maynard

Time

God

" I wonder what it is that the people who criticize me for telling this story truly object to: is it that I have dared to tell the story? Or that the story turns out not to be the one they wanted to hear? "

" Many women my age have known the experience of giving up crucial parts of themselves to please the man they love. "

Joyce Maynard

Man

Women

" If a man wishes to truly not be written about, he would do well not to write letters to 18-year-old girls, inviting them into his life. "

" I do not outline. There are writers I know and count as my friends who certainly do it the other way, but for me, part of the adventure is not knowing how it's going to turn out. "

" Not only did I avoid speaking of Salinger; I resisted thinking about him. I did not reread his letters to me. The experience had been too painful. "

" I have long observed that the act of writing is viewed, by some, as an elite and otherworldly act, all the more so if a person isn't paid for what she writes. "

Joyce Maynard

Person

She

" You write about what you know, and you write about what you want to know. "

" Teach a child to play solitaire, and she'll be able to entertain herself when there's no one around. Teach her tennis, and she'll know what to do when she's on a court. But raise her to feel comfortable in nature, and the whole planet is her home. "

" To share our stories is not only a worthwhile endeavor for the storyteller, but for those who hear our stories and feel less alone because of it. "

" Growing up in the fifties and sixties, I can only remember knowing one child, ever, whose parents got a divorce, and hardly any whose mother 'worked' at anything besides raising her children. "

" The portrait of my parents is a complicated one, but lovingly drawn. "

" The big dramas that fascinate me are the quiet ones that happen behind closed doors in so-called ordinary families. "

" It is not the task of a reader to please her subjects. "

" A person who deserves my loyalty receives it. "

" I believe every one of us possesses a fundamental right to tell our own story. "

" Women writers have been told, forever, that our stories were not valuable. Not as valuable as men's stories about wars, business, power. "

" Some literary types subscribe to the notion that being a writer like Salinger entitles a person to remain free of the standards that might apply to mere mortals. "

" Long after Salinger sent me away, I continued to believe his standards and expectations were the best ones. "

" My job is writing. I get paid to do it. When was the last time you heard someone challenge a doctor for making money off of cancer? "

" I had known there had been a serial killer on Mount Tamalpais, and it felt so incongruous in such a beautiful, peaceful spot. "

" There is a theme that runs through my work, and that is: the toxic property of keeping secrets. "

" I continued to protect him with my silence. "

" It's not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can't tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself. "

" I've had some wonderful successes and some extreme disappointments in my career and my life. "

" I believed my story would be helpful to young women my daughter's age, who are still in the process of forming themselves as women, and in need of encouragement to remain true to themselves. "

" For 25 years, I did take my responsibilities as a pleaser of others sufficiently seriously. "

" The silence was part of the story I wanted to tell. "

" A good home must be made, not bought. In the end, it's not track lighting or a sun room that brings light into a kitchen. "

" It troubles me that people speak about writing for money as ugly and distasteful. "