Quotes from Jennifer Weiner

Picture each worry like a gift. Put them in order, from the mildest to the most intense. Imagine yourself picking up each one and wrapping it with care. Picture yourself placing the gift under a tree, and then walking away.

Admitting you had a problem was the first step - everyone knew that - but admitting you had a problem also left you open to the possibility that maybe you couldn't fix it

With motherhood and marriage there was no finish line, no hour or day or year when you got to say you were through. Life just went on and on, endless and formless, with no performance evaluation, no raises or feedback or two weeks' vacation.

And here's the good news: even if things don't get better, you can always make them look good on the internet.

Tell the story that's been growing in your heart, the characters you can't keep out of your head, the tale that speaks to you, that pops into your head during your daily commute, that wakes you up in the morning.

You make the wrong choices, you make mistakes, you disappear for a decade, you marry the wrong man. You get hurt. You lose sight of who you are, or of who you want to be, and then you remember, and if you're lucky you have sisters or friends who remind you when you forget your best intentions. You come back to yourself, again and again. You try, and fail, and try again, and fail again.

I miss him all the time. I shook my head, disgusted at my own mopiness. It's like being haunted or something. And I don't have the luxury of being haunted right now. I need to think about myself...

How do you find happiness in a body like yours...like mine? How do you find courage to follow anything anywhere if you don't feel like you fit in the world?

He's a great guy, she said ,and he heard her try to sound enthusiastic,like she was selling herself on her soon-to-be-husband's greatness...and then,in a whispered rush, just before she cut the connection,he thought he heard her say,Sometimes I wish it had been you

This thing that I created, this thing I made as a woman, for other women, is worth something. It's worth exactly the same as what a similar thing, built by a man, for men, is worth.

She and her friends would talk about their husbands like they were children, or pets - some strange species responsible for bad smells and strange noises and messes they'd have to clean up.

And remember-no woman ever said, on her deathbed, I wish I'd eaten less cake.

They tried to bury us. They didn't know we were seeds.

She loved [her daughters]. More than that, she admired them. They would be better than she was: stronger and smarter, more capable and less afraid, and if the world displeased them, they would change it, cracking it open, reshaping it, instead of bending themselves to its demands.

sometimes—a lot of the time—it felt like her skin no longer fit her, and her body was only a collection of flaws to be fixed or at least disguised, an endless source of despair.

I didn't trust people who forgot to eat.

Change the setting, change the mood ... She'd taught him to make himself go outside if he was in, or inside if he was out, to interrupt the plummet with something as simple as making a cup of tea or spending a few minutes working on crossword puzzles.

If you want to hit someone or you want to throw something, I want you to run first. I want you to run until you can hardly lift your legs and your arms. Run until you're exhausted, and then, if you still want to hit someone or throw something, you just wait 'til you've caught your breath again and then go for it. Try it

Just a regular gal, Jo thought, and smiled, thinking, If you only knew.

She knew she'd be hearing that voice, those words, on an endless loop in her brain, maybe for the rest of her life.

When someone tells you who they are, believe them.

Please, God, or whoever's up there, please just give me enough time to make it right.

My parents aren't cruel to them. They pay them well. It's more that they treat them like they're pets.

drawing of a boy with brown hair and