Anna Quindlen

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Anna Marie Quindlen (born July 8, 1952) is an American author, journalist, and opinion columnist.

Quotes from Anna Quindlen

Sometimes I remind myself that I almost skipped the party, that I almost went to a different college, that the whim of a minute could have changed everything and everyone. Our lives, so settled, so specific, are built on happenstance.

—Anna Quindlen in Every Last One

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wonder fate whim happenstance

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If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all.

—Anna Quindlen

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feeling success good

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There's a certain kind of conversation you have from time to time at parties in New York about a new book. The word "banal" sometimes rears its by-now banal head; you say "underedited," I say "derivative." The conversation goes around and around various literary criticisms, and by the time it moves on one thing is clear: No one read the book; we just read the reviews.

—Anna Quindlen

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books

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A finished person is a boring person.

—Anna Quindlen

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boredom

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I would be the most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.

—Anna Quindlen

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children

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I think that anyone who comes upon a Nautilus machine suddenly will agree with me that its prototype was clearly invented at some time in history when torture was considered a reasonable alternative to diplomacy.

—Anna Quindlen

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exercise

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I can't think of anything to write about except families. They are a metaphor for every other part of society.

—Anna Quindlen

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family

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O ye of little faith, who believe that somehow the birth of Christ is dependent upon acknowledgment in a circular from OfficeMax!

—Anna Quindlen

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God

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Or what about the statue in California currently said to be crying bloody tears? Why worry about the alleged weeping of a plaster effigy when so many actual human beings have reason to cry?

—Anna Quindlen

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God

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The world is full of women blindsided by the unceasing demands of motherhood, still flabbergasted by how a job can be terrific and torturous.

—Anna Quindlen

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parents

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The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.

—Anna Quindlen

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perfection

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All of us want to do well. But if we do not do good, too, then doing well will never be enough.

—Anna Quindlen

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Voices that loud are always meant to bully. Do not be bullied. Acts of bravery don't always take place on battlefields. They can take place in your heart, when you have the courage to honor your character, your intellect, your inclinations, and, yes your soul by listening to its clean, clear voice of direction instead of following the muddied messages of a timid world.

—Anna Quindlen

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When you leave college, there are thousands of people out there with the same degree you have; when you get a job, there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living. But you are the only person alive who has sole custody of your life.

—Anna Quindlen

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Books

Anna Quindlen has the following books quoted on Quodid:

Every Last One