Meg Wolitzer Quotes

Being a teacher at a restaurant in the town where you lived was a little like being a TV star.

Good writing is good writing, and I'm so happy when I read it.

While it's true that some writers, when taking on love and war, find the task too big, or only succeed in one but not the other, Mengestu tracks both themes with authority and feeling.

You had only one chance for a signature in life, but most people left no impression.

For me, a novel relying too heavily on a single idea might be a dry, deadly thing unless it possesses an animating force.

The child who was happy with herself meant the parents had won the jackpot.

People like to warn you that by the time you reach the middle of your life, passion will begin to feel like a meal eaten long ago, which you remember with great tenderness.

But clearly life took people and shook them around until finally they were unrecognizable even to those who had once known them well. Still, there was power in once having known someone.

The generation that had information, but no context. Butter, but no bread. Craving, but no longing.

Wasn't the whole point of being an artist, or at least part of it, that you didn't have to wear a tie?

After a certain age, you felt a need not to be alone. It grew stronger, like a radio frequency, until finally it was so powerful that you were forced to do something about it.

Just the act of sleeping beside someone you liked to be with. Maybe that was love.

We do seem, as a culture, to fetishize the "sweep." But I know there's room for "big" short, fierce novels, and "big" solid ones.

It seemed that everywhere you went, people quickly adapted to the way they had to live, and called it Life.

But now the world, he thought, had taken them. He knew that this could suddenly happen. One day you just woke up, and there was somewhere that you needed to be.

And specialness - everyone wants it. But Jesus, is it the most essential thing there is? Most people aren't talented. So what are they supposed to do - kill themselves?

In The Interestings I wanted to write about what happens to talent over time. In some people talent blooms, in others it falls away.

Both my mother and I have close groups of friends that include other writers, and these friendships are very important to us.

Books light the fire-whether it's a book that's already written, or an empty journal that needs to be filled in.

But it had no doubt sprung from true emotion, for all that parents ever wanted, really, was for you to love their child the way they did.

Even if you yourself were unhappy and anxious, whenever you glimpsed happiness in your child, you suddenly became happy too.

I have never been much of a researcher

The only option for a creative person was constant motion—a lifetime of busy whirligigging in a generally forward direction, until you couldn’t do it any longer.

People could not get enough of what they had lost, even if they no longer wanted it.

Everybody has a theme. You talk to somebody awhile, and you realize they have one particular thing that rules them. The best you can do is a variation on the theme, but that's about it.

This post-college world felt different from everything that had come before it.

Twitter," said Manny, waving his hand. "You know what that is? Termites with microphones.

We are all here, on this earth for only one go around. And everyone thinks their purpose is to just find their passion. But perhaps our purpose is to find what other people need.

Words matter. All semester, we were looking for the words to say what we needed to say. We were all looking for our voice.

There was no life Dennis burned to live except, it seemed, a life that wasn't depressed.

Is there anything sadder than the scrawniest little piece of uneaten chicken at a dinner party?”“Hmm, ” said Jules. “Yes. The Holocaust.

I think having the knowledge, plus the experiences you've lived through, make you definitely not fragile. They make you brave.

Until there is no longer the possibility of sadness, of isolation, there can be no gravity. We all float by, rootless, taking clumsy astronaut steps and calling it progress.

The mystery of desire was way beyond the conceptual abilities of Jules Jacobson. It was like ... robotics. Just another subject that she couldn’t understand at all.

If someone said 'diametrically, ' could 'opposed' be far behind?

No, of course not. I just feel content, ” she said carefully.“That’s an old person’s word, ” said Ethan.

...because when you're young, you don't really believe you'll ever be anything other than young.

Twitter, " said Manny, waving his hand. "You know what that is? Termites with microphones.

Jealousy was essentially "I want what you have, " while envy was "I want what you have, but I also want to take it away so you can't have it.

Dennis was present, still present, and this, she thought as she stayed landed against him, was no small talent.

Sometimes it's easier to tell ourselves a story.