Quotes from Jennifer Weiner

They say - "they" being the great philosophers, or possibly the cast of Seinfeld - that breaking up is like pushing over a Coke machine. You can't just do it, you have to set the thing in motion, rock it back and forth a few times.

I sometimes read about authors who say they require a perfectly silent room maintained at precisely 68 degrees, with trash bags taped over the windows and a white-noise machine in the corner to write, and I think, 'Who are these people, and do any of them have kids?'

Being a novelist is hard for anyone - male or female. You don't get to quit your day job.

I don't write literary fiction - I write books that are entertaining, but are also, I hope, well-constructed and thoughtful and funny and have things to say about men and women and families and children and life in America today.

When you get everything you wanted, I think maybe you do have to be a little grateful for the people who got you there... whether or not they thought they were doing you any favors at the time.

I wrote my first books when I was single and then I got married and then had a kid and there were different things happening in my life.

I'm not in charge of my life.

This is motherhood for you,' said my own mother. 'Going through life with your heart outside your body.

I'm going to continue writing. I'll always be a storyteller. But I'm also taking time to enjoy my life.

I've learned that some broken things stay broken, and I've learned that you can get through bad times and keep looking for better ones, as long as you have people who love you.

The difference between people who believe they have books inside of them and those who actually write books is sheer cussed persistence - the ability to make yourself work at your craft, every day - the belief, even in the face of obstacles, that you've got something worth saying.

I was an English major in college, took a ton of creative writing courses, and was a newspaper reporter for 10 years.

I get really starstruck and tongue tied when I'm around other writers and the conversation tends not to go well.

He loved me. He loved me, but he doesn't love me anymore, and it's not the end of the world.

Everyone has sorrow. Everyone has obligations. Everyone keeps going. You lean on the people who love you. You do the best you can, and you keep going.

Instead of hoping that some day the boys' club will open its doors, we can form our own clubs, define 'worthy' our own way, and celebrate the books and voices that we decide deserve celebration.

I don't trust happiness. I turn it over as if it were a glass at a flea market or a rug at a souk, looking for chipped rims or loose threads.

I'd love to spend a day being supermodel beautiful.

The truth is, what I learned this year is that life is hard...Good people die for no reason. Little kids get sick. The people that are supposed to love you end up leaving.

Many writers secretly long to be performers. You always get the 'if you weren't a writer' question. I would be a back-up singer, to stand in the back and go like 'do, do, do.'

There's all kinds of love in the world, and not all of it looks like the stuff in greeting cards.

I'm so glad that social media gives me a chance to do that, to celebrate books I love and help proselytize for books I love.

I love it when people ask who my influences are... or what my favorite part of my last book was... or the last great book I read.

I love it when people ask if Jennifer Weiner is a pen name. Um, if I wanted a pen name I could have done a LOT better than this!