Anna Quindlen

There is only room in the lifeboat of your life for one, and you always choose yourself, and turn your parents into whatever it takes to keep you afloat. ”

The victim mentality may be the last uncomplicated thing about life in America. ”

I read and walked for miles at night along the beach, writing bad blank verse and searching endlessly for someone wonderful who would step out of the darkness and change my life. It never crossed my mind that that person could be me. ”

Somewhere between a third and a quarter of all people living in America today were born between 1946 and 1965 and if you think you're tired of hearing about us, you should try being one of us. ”

If there is anyone who's living the work of the New Testament, it's the nuns of the Catholic church and not the Catholic hierarchy. ”

I am an affirmative action hire. ”

People always blame the girl; she should have said no. A monosyllable, but conventional wisdom has always been that boys can't manage it. ”

There is little premium in poetry in a world that thinks of Pound and Whitman as a weight and a sampler, not an Ezra, a Walt, a thing of beauty, a joy forever. ”

Ignorant free speech often works against the speaker. That is one of several reasons why it must be given rein instead of suppressed. ”

Ideas are only lethal if you suppress and don't discuss them. Ignorance is not bliss, it's stupid. Banning books shows you don't trust your kids to think and you don't trust yourself to be able to talk to them. ”