Quotes from Lisa Alther

The man who has no inner life is a slave of his surroundings, as the barometer is the obedient servant of the air.

One didn't issue instructions to comets. Grown children did what they had to do, and parents could only grit their teeth and watch and pray for them to get through it.

Inspiration never arrived when you were searching for it.

Just as you began to feel that you could make good use of time, there was no time left to you.

What a surprise to find you could shift the contents of your head like rearranging furniture in a room.

The requirements of romantic love are difficult to satisfy in the back seat of a Dodge Dart.

I happen to feel that the degree of a person's intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting attitudes she can bring to bear on the same topic.

I always thought it was a question of achieving some permanent state of tranquillity ... but it's not. It's more like learning to surf. The waves keep rolling in, each different from the last, and you have to ride them, instead of getting pounded to bits.

no pain was permanent, and no loss was real. That even though people treated each other abominably, even though they left, even though you let them go, even though you never laid eyes on them again, this fugue that linked you continued, whether you liked it or not.

If this was adulthood, the only improvement she could detect in her situation was that now she could eat dessert without eating her vegetables.

Whatever I experienced in the world that I didn't understand I'd invent a story and workout my understanding of something through the story.

The strength you've insisted on assigning to others is actually within yourself.

I wrote for twelve years and collected 250 rejection slips before getting any fiction published, so I guess outside reinforcement isn't all that important to me.

Any mother could perform the jobs of several air traffic controllers with ease.

Just as you began to feel that you could make good use of time, there was no time left to you.

That's the risk you take if you change that people you've been involved with won't like the new you. But other people who do will come along.

That's the risk you take if you change: that people you've been involved with won't like the new you. But other people who do will come along.