Quotes from Laurie Frankel

lots of fish switch genders?" Her parents had no idea. "They switch or they're both. Both at once, or first one then the other. Clown fish all start as boys, but some of them become girls later. Parrot fish are all girls, so then one of them has to become a boy—she changes color and everything—but then if another boy comes along, she might go back to being a girl again.

As I have said—and as should be obvious—stupid people need to read books in order to get smarter, but unfortunately people who like books are usually smart already, and stupid people do not read.

Easy is nice, but it's not as good as getting to be who who are or stand up for what you believe in. Easy is nice but I wonder how often it leads to fulfilling work or partnership or being.

You can't tell people what to be, I'm afraid," said Rosie. "You can only love and support who they already are. But

Annus Mirabilis." The year of wonders.

Fitting in and being normal doesn't exist; not for a few years in the middle.

Like with wine?" Poppy was intrigued. "It's not a book club if there isn't wine.

children being the enemies of plans and also the enemies of anything new besides themselves.

the only place more germ laden than a hospital is an elementary school.

You never have enough information. You don't get to see the future. And if you screw up, if with your incomplete, contradictory information you make the wrong call, well, nothing less than your child's entire future and happiness is at stake. It's impossible. It's heartbreaking. It's maddening. But there's no alternative.

or burying it, not by keeping it secret, but by reminding themselves, and everyone else, to choose love, choose openness, to think and be calm. That there were more ways than just two, wider possibilities than hidden or betrayed, stalled or brokenhearted, male or female, right or wrong. Middle ways. Ways beyond.

If you don't worry about something until it's already a problem," said Rosie, "that's not worry. That's observation.

A mom at a PTA meeting the year before had taken Rosie aside to advise her not to tack condoms to a bulletin board next to the bed, no matter how convenient a storage solution that seemed, a lesson she confessed, nodding at a first-grader in the corner licking paste off his fingers, she had learned the hard way.

If you don't worry about something until it's already a problem," said Rosie, "that's not worry. That's observation." The little girls who invited Poppy over had pink rooms and pink LEGOs and pink comforters over pink sheets on their pink beds.

But Rosie was also used to conflicting emotions, for she was a mother and knew every moment of every day that no one out in the world could ever love or value or nurture her children as well as she could and yet that it was necessary nonetheless to send them out into that world anyway.

You can tell anytime,' Penn said, 'but once people know, they can never unknow.

wish for my child, for all our children, a world where they can be who they are and become their most loved, blessed, appreciated selves.

I mean, if we could have everything, sure. If we can have it all, yeah, I wish them easy, successful, fun-filled lives, crowned with good friends, attentive lovers, heaps of money, intellectual stimulation, and good views out the window. I wish them eternal beauty, international travel, and smart things to watch on TV. But if I can't have everything, if I only get a few, I'm not sure easy makes my wish list.

Everyone needs air, water, food, shelter, and clothing all the time, Monday. Everyone needs care when they're sick or hurt, love when they're sad or scared, someone to tell them no or stop when they're being unsafe. Everything else people need sometimes—and it's a lot—is special. All of us have special needs.

One is the loneliest number

Anything too easily won was soon lost or else not worth winning

Easy is nice, but it's not as good as getting to be who you are or stand up for what you believe in.

Head colds should be tolerated. Children should be celebrated.

Bullshit then." Carmelo was not a woman bogged down by semantics. "He's fine. Look at him! He's ecstatic. He's euphoric." "For the moment." Carmelo looked at her daughter. "For the moment's all there is, my darling.