Anna Quindlen

America is a country that seems forever to be toddler or teenager, at those two stages of human development characterized by conflict between autonomy and security. ”

I would be the most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. ”

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. ”

Look back, to slavery, to suffrage, to integration and one thing is clear. Fashions in bigotry come and go. The right thing lasts. ”

The greatest public health threat for many American women is the men they live with. ”

You want to have fun with your kids, and no one has fun with someone who runs roughshod. ”

I will never understand people who think that the way to show their righteous opposition to sexual freedom is to write letters full of filthy words. ”

There is something so settled and stodgy about turning a great romance into next of kin on an emergency room form, and something so soothing and special, too. ”

I would even go to Washington, which is saying something for me, just to glimpse Jane Q. Public, being sworn in as the first female president of the United States, while her husband holds the Bible and wears a silly pill box hat and matching coat. ”

If I get the forty additional years statisticians say are likely coming to me, I could fit in at least one, maybe two new lifetimes. Sad that only one of those lifetimes can include being the mother of young children. ”