Quotes from Jeannette Walls

It was good work, the kind of work that let you sleep soundly at night and, when you awoke, look forward to the day.

I wanted to let the world know that no one had a perfect life, that even people who seemed to have it all had their secrets.

You should never hate anyone, not even your worst enemies. Everyone has something good about them. You had to find the redeeming quality and love the person for that.

What doesn't kill you will make you stronger

Once you go on welfare it changes you. Even if you get off welfare, you never escape the stigma that you were a charity case. You're scarred for life.

Too much hard luck can create a permanent meanness of spirit in any creature.

Don't worry, God understands,' Mom said. 'He knows that your father is a cross we must bear.

New Yorkers, I figured, just pretended to be unfriendly.

If I owned hell and west Texas, he said, I do believe I'd sell west Texas and live in hell.

If you want to be treated like a mother," I said, "you should act like one.

everyone who is interesting has a past

The dangerous falls were the ones that happened so fast you didn't have time to react

She never felt sorry for herself, and that was something I decided I admired most in people.

To all families who, despite their scars, still find a way to love.

Since Mom wasn't exactly the most useful person in the world, one lesson I learned at an early age was how to get things done, and this was a source of both amazement and concern for Mom, who considered my behavior unladylike but also counted on me. I never knew a girl to have such gumption, she'd say. But I'm not too sure it's a good thing.

Dad kept telling me that he loved me, that he never would have let me drown, but you can't cling to the side your whole life, that one lesson every parent needs to teach a child is "If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim.

If you had weak eyes, they needed exercise to get strong. Glasses were like crutches. They prevented people with feeble eyes from seeing the world on their own.

I hadn't been paying much attention to things like the sunrise, but that old sun had been coming up anyway. It didn't really care how I felt, it was going to rise and set regardless of whether I noticed it, and if I was going to enjoy it, that was up to me.

Don't you make fun of me or my children! Some babies are premature. Mine were all postmature. That's why they're so smart. Their brains had longer to develop.

Mom always said people worried too much about their children. Suffering when you are young is good for you, she said. It immunized your body and your soul.

Every household needs one piece of furniture in really bad taste.

What I do know is that wondering why you survived don't help you survive.

Brian told Mom we needed to keep Maureen away from those nutty Pentecostals, but Mom said we all came to religion in our own individual ways and we each need to respect the religious practices of others, seeing as it was up to every human being to find his or her own way to heaven.

People worried too much about their children. Suffering when you're young is good for you. It immunized your body and soul...