Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" 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. "

Related Quotes:

" The vehemence with which certain critics have chosen not simply to criticize what I've written, but to challenge my writing this story at all, speaks of what the book is about: fear of disapproval. "

Joyce Maynard

Book

Writing

Story

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

" If people choose to live their life in a way that does not confront the more troubling aspects of their experience, that's fine, if it works for them. But it will probably make them uncomfortable if they come up against somebody like me. So they just shouldn't! They shouldn't read my work! "

Joyce Maynard

Work

Live

" 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 continued to protect him with my silence. "

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

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

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

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

" 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

" The painter who feels obligated to depict his subjects as uniformly beautiful or handsome and without flaws will fall short of making art. "

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" I compromised my ability to tell my story, at the most basic level. "

" More than any other setting - more than battlefields or boardrooms or a spaceship headed for intergalactic travel - I'll put my money on the family to provide an endless source of comedy, tragedy and intrigue. "

" A person who deserves my loyalty receives it. "

" If I told you about all the stories I don't tell, I would be violating the very boundaries I set for myself. "

" 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

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

" Nothing like being visible, publishing one's work, and speaking openly about one's life, to disabuse the world of the illusion of one's perfection and purity. "

" 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. "

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

" Those who rhapsodize about the ease and joy of childhood have perhaps forgotten what it's like to be 12 years old. "

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

" 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. "