Quotes from Terry McMillan

We dream of times that are not and blindly flee the only one that is. The fact is that the present usually hurts. —BLAISE PASCAL

I used to lie on his bed for an hour before bedtime or on a Saturday afternoon and read to him and then when he graduated to books with chapters sometimes he read. I'd look over at him, at his entire body, which appeared to have grown in the last few minutes; his lips moved and his eyes danced and darted across the page and I'd think: my son can read; he can comprehend things, he is making discoveries and he will soon have even more opinions about the world.

I change my mind about the new black getup and opt for the chocolate brown outfit I was going to wear to the party. I'm not trying to inspire Michael. I just want to look inspired. God, I hope he has a big fat gut and his teeth are rotting and he can't stand up straight because his penis has fallen off and he smells like mustard.

confused elitist. She thinks the kind of car you drive defines you, along with your zip code.

Why people take drugs baffles me to no end. Especially when they can't afford them.

It doesn't have to be all down hill from here

I just believe that young people need to be able to learn how to write in their own voice. Just like a musician, you pride yourself on having your own distinct sound.

You've been killing me inside and I don't want to die like this.

I would be content being a housewife if I could find the kind of man who wouldn't treat me like one.

Too many of us are hung up on what we don't have, can't have, or won't ever have. We spend too much energy being down, when we could use that same energy – if not less of it – doing, or at least trying to do, some of the things we really want to do.

Folks want to glow, to leave their worries and dead skin behind.

I want to push the fast-forward button until I get back to happy.

Men cheat. They lie. They love porn. The don't respect you and don't care if they hurt you. It's the fucking breaks. Women divorce 'em 'cause we can't tame 'em or train 'em or control 'em like we do household pets. End of story.

don't sabotage your own greatness by succumbing to failure!

I was tired of chasing ghosts, hollow men who were outside my comfort zone, men who had nothing to give me except a rush. It was all I asked for, and all I ever got.

happiness aint got no Ph.D. or no certain amount of zeroes behind it!

What I do know is sometimes we love the wrong people and sometimes we marry them.

life is like a jigsaw puzzle, you have to see the whole picture, then put it together piece by piece!

Look, as my mama always said, 'One monkey don't stop no show.

It goes without saying that your friends are usually the first to discuss your personal business behind your back.

You've been killing me inside and I don't want to die like this.

Back then I confused passions and orgasms with love. It look me years to realize the two weren't synonymous.

I like to think of what happens to characters in good novels and stories as knots--things keep knotting up. And by the end of the story--readers see an unknotting of sorts. Not what you expect, not the easy answers you get on TV, not wash and wear philosophies, but a reproduction of believable, emotional experiences.

I'm not trying to be a middle aged centerfold, I just want to look at myself naked and not be disgusted.