Quotes from Laurie Frankel

I just feel a little bit sad. Sad isn't bleeding. Sad is okay

Is it always "or"? Is it never "and"? —STEPHEN SONDHEIM, INTO THE WOODS Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.) —WALT WHITMAN, "SONG OF MYSELF

Just because it's made up, doesn't mean it isn't

Dispelling fear. Taming what was scary not by hiding it, not by blocking it or burying it, not by keeping it secret, but

P]aper's just as permanent once you send it out into the world. It seems like it closes the story, settles on one ending eliminating infinite possibilities, fixes it in place, in voice, but no, it does the opposite. You write it down so others can read it, and then it can grow. You nail it to a moment so it can pass through time.

Bedtime could only be followed by TV. Or drinking.

Consolidation is good. If you give all your worry to one thing, soon you'll realize that's way too much and worry about it less, and you'll feel more in control of it for keeping it at the front of your mind, and that will help you worry less too.

I'm so sorry because it's still not easy. You have a long, hard, terrible road ahead. There are lots of ways to travel it, but they all suck and they all involve letting go.

These are things we all have to grapple with. A five-year-old has much to learn. When people are annoying, it feels good to push them but we mustn't. Even though it's often pleasant to shout, others are trying to concentrate. Though we'd always like to be first, sometimes it's someone else's turn. And when we behave in a manner other people don't expect, there will be consequences

Just because it's made up, doesn't mean it isn't real...Made up is the most powerful real there is.

You keep remember: all is change." "All what?" "All life. You are never finish, never done. Never become, always becoming. You know? Life is change so is always okay you are not there yet. Is like this for you and Poppy and everyone. The people who do not understand are change. The people who afraid are change. There is no before and no after because change is what is life. You live in change, in in between.

How did you teach your your small human that it's what's inside that counts when the truth was everyone was pretty preoccupied with what you put on over the outside too?

Story is the best magic there is.

Having children, helping people, making art, inventing anything, leading the way, tackling the world's problems, overcoming your own. I don't know. Not much of what I value in our lives is easy.

Virtue leads straight to transformation; transformation leads instantly to happily ever after.

Claude's kindergarten was full-day, six whole hours of sitting quietly and following rules and being away from home where someone—everyone—loved him best of all.

It's a good thing people's needs don't all arise at the same time; otherwise we wouldn't be able to meet them all.

Parenthood is like that." She tried to be doctorly. "The harder the choice, the less likely any of the options are good ones.

You're too old to be open-minded and tolerant," said Rosie. "I'm too old not to be.

Because you know what's even better than happy endings?" "What?" "Happy middles." "You think?" "All the happy with none of the finality. All the happy with room enough to grow. What could be better than that?" "For a while," said Rosie. "A while's a long time," said Penn.

Turns out fixing people up is not how we make money. It's failing to fix people up while still giving them hope that soon we might.

Besides, this meant she was going to need wooing after all. He was delighted. Penn was a student of narrative and knew that lovers should be wooed, relationships fought for, that anything too easily won was soon lost or else not worth winning. He suspected she was worth winning

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.

We imagine the world we hope for and endeavor, with the greatest power we have, to bring that world into being.