Quotes from Joyce Maynard

If a man wishes to truly not be written about, he would do well not to write letters to 18-year-old girls, inviting them into his life.

I wonder what it is that the people who criticize me for telling this story truly object to: is it that I have dared to tell the story? Or that the story turns out not to be the one they wanted to hear?

A person who deserves my loyalty receives it.

When people ask what I write about, that's what I tell them: 'The drama of human relationships.' I'm not even close to running out of material.

To share our stories is not only a worthwhile endeavor for the storyteller, but for those who hear our stories and feel less alone because of it.

Although Salinger had long since cut me out of his life completely and made it plain that he had nothing but contempt for me, the thought of becoming the object of his wrath was more than I felt ready to take on.

Women writers have been told, forever, that our stories were not valuable. Not as valuable as men's stories about wars, business, power.

I have long observed that the act of writing is viewed, by some, as an elite and otherworldly act, all the more so if a person isn't paid for what she writes.

The silence was part of the story I wanted to tell.

I continued to protect him with my silence.

It's not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can't tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself.

Not only did I avoid speaking of Salinger I resisted thinking about him. I did not reread his letters to me. The experience had been too painful.

Imagine if you succeeded in making the world perfect for your children what a shock the rest of life would be for them.

I believed my story would be helpful to young women my daughter's age, who are still in the process of forming themselves as women, and in need of encouragement to remain true to themselves.

To share our stories is not only a worthwhile endeavor for the storyteller, but for those who hear our stories and feel less alone because of it.

More than any other setting - more than battlefields or boardrooms or a spaceship headed for intergalactic travel - I'll put my money on the family to provide an endless source of comedy, tragedy and intrigue.

At Home in the World is the story of a young woman, raised in some difficult circumstances, and how she survives. It tells a story of redemption, not victimhood.

If people choose to live their life in a way that does not confront the more troubling aspects of their experience, that's fine, if it works for them. But it will probably make them uncomfortable if they come up against somebody like me. So they just shouldn't! They shouldn't read my work!

The vehemence with which certain critics have chosen not simply to criticize what I've written, but to challenge my writing this story at all, speaks of what the book is about: fear of disapproval.

A good home must be made, not bought.

This was always her problem, of course. That her children's sorrows became hers. She felt their pain so deeply, she hardly registered her own.

You like to think you can count on a person. To hang around

weary soldiers who went through a war together, side by

Ava never used the phrase "have a dog." A relationship with a dog was a mutual one, with no ownership. Most human beings were unlikely to ever experience—even with a lover, a parent, or a child—the kind of unconditional acceptance and devotion a dog will offer to the human in his or her life.