Quotes from Pamela Druckerman

Childhood and adolescence are nothing but milestones: You grow taller, advance to new grades, and get your period, your driver's license, and your diploma. Then, in your 20s and 30s, you romance potential partners, find jobs, and learn to support yourself.

How hard or easy it is to raise kids, especially while working, is a big part of people's well-being everywhere.

While I love walking past those beautifully lit bookstores in my neighborhood, what I mostly buy there are blank notebooks and last-minute presents for children's birthdays.

What you can say, what French parents say to their kids is, 'You don't have to eat everything, honey, you just have to taste it.' And it's that tasting little by little by little that gets kids more familiar with the food and more comfortable with it and more likely to eat it the next time.

I had applied to become French - or, rather, Franco-American, as I'm now a dual citizen - partly because I could: I'd lived and paid taxes here for long enough.

Not many foreigners move to Paris for their dream job. Many do it on a romantic whim.

There's an American idea that you want to look as young as you can for as long as you can. If you can be mistaken for a teenager from behind into your 50s, then you've won; you've succeeded.

Discrimination was a problem before terrorism. Now, the bad deeds of a few people have made life worse for millions.

Parisians won't admit that they go to the gym, let alone that they're scared of terrorists.

I'm a third-generation Miamian. I'm fond of it. I'm an expatriate, so it's the only American city I can still legitimately claim.

I've gotten used to being a foreigner.

It's fine to discuss money in France, as long as you're complaining that you don't have enough, or boasting about getting a bargain.

I spend much of my free time listening to podcasts of American comedians talking to each other.

Remember that the problem with hyper-parenting isn't that it's bad for children; it's that it's bad for parents.

The French talk about education, the education of their children. They don't talk about raising kids. They talk about education. And that has nothing to do with school. It's this kind of broad description of how you raise children and what you teach them.

Earnestness makes British people gag.

I've never gotten a good idea while checking Twitter or shopping.

This idea - that the only way to mend the relationship post-affair is through therapy - is unique to the American script.

Parisiennes rarely walk around wearing the giant diamonds that are de rigueur in certain New York neighborhoods.

Eating among the French certainly affected me. After a few years here, I gave up most of my selective food habits.

It's refreshing to have some time off from wondering whether I look fat.

In my 40s, I expect to finally reap the average-looking girl's revenge. I've entered the stage of life where you don't need to be beautiful; simply by being well-preserved and not obese, I would now pass for pretty.

If you want to know how old you look, just walk into a French cafe. It's like a public referendum on your face.

The French aren't known for being hilarious. When I told Parisians I was interested in French humor, they'd say 'French what?'