Best 114 quotes of Jeannette Walls on MyQuotes

A lady's hair is her crowning glory

Anyone who thinks he's too small to make a difference has never been bit by a mosquito

As I sat down, though, I realized that you can get used to certain luxuries that you start to think they're necessities, but when you have to forgo them, you come to see that you don't need them after all. There was a big difference between needing things and wanting things--though a lot of people had trouble telling the two apart--and at the ranch, I could see, we have pretty much everything we'd need but precious little else.

But no matter how much planning you do, one tiny miscalculation, one moment of distraction, can end it all in an instant.

But the positive thoughts would give way to negative thoughts, and the negative thoughts seemed to swoop into her mind the way a big flock of black crows takes over the landscape, sitting thick in the trees and on the fence rails and lawns, staring at you in ominous silence.

Confidence doesn't come from thinking you're perfect or flawless. That's arrogance. Confidence comes from appreciating the beauty of your texture.

Dad was a philosopher and had what he called his Theory of Purpose, which held that everything in life had a purpose, and unless it achieved that purpose, it was just taking up space on the planet and wasting everybody's time.

Don't be afraid of your dark places. ... If you can shine a light on them, you'll find treasure there.

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.

...even though I was getting better education at home than any of the kids in Toyah, I'd need to go to finishing school when I was thirteen, both to acquire social graces and to earn a diploma. Because in this world, Dad said, it's not enough to have a fine education. You need a piece of paper to prove you go it.

Everything in life is gray, you know.

Fussing over children who cry only encourages them. That's positive reinforcement for negative behavior.

God deals us all different hands. How we play 'em is up to us.

Horses are a mirror of who you are. They're emotionally dependent on you.

Horses were never wrong. They always did what they did for a reason, and it was up to you to figure it out.

I became known as Lily Casey, the mustang-breaking, poker-playing, horse-race-winning schoolmarm of Coconino County, and it wasn't half bad to be in place where no one had a problem with a woman having a moniker like that.

I believe that everyone has some huge talent in them; the really lucky ones discover what it is.

I find books that have a moral and spiritual center, that speak to what is really important and lasting, hugely appealing.

I found out that people are incredibly compassionate and kind. It really changed my view of the world.

If you don't think you're hurt, then you aren't

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.

If you want to be treated like a mother, act like one.

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.

I hate Erma," I told Mom... "You have to show compassion for her..." She added that you should never hate anyone, even your worst enemies. "Everyone has something good about them," she said. "You have to find the redeeming quality and love the person for that." "Oh yeah?" I said. "How about Hitler? What was his redeeming quality?" "Hitler loved dogs," Mom said without hesitation.

I listen to music mostly in the evening. I've come to love what is called world music, like the Zimbabwean Oliver Mtukudzi and the Colombian singer Marta Gomez. I also love the Irish folk singer Mary Black. Other favorites include Chet Baker, Eva Cassidy, and Billie Holiday.

I'm a big believer in luck - the harder you work, the luckier you become.

I'm a fairly fast, but sloppy writer, so I'm a big fan of re-writing, and re-writing again.

I never had any question that my parents loved me. I had a real sense of self confidence.

In my opinion, trying to guess what readers want is the wrong approach. You have to tell your story as best you can and as true to yourself as possible. You have to be honest and fair and vulnerable and foolish and brave, and not care what anyone thinks of it.

In this world, it's not enough to have a fine education. You need a piece of paper to prove you got it.

I reached my full height at age 11, and I was clumsy as all get-out - all elbows and knees, couldn't get up a flight of stairs without falling down. I wanted to be a cute, petite blonde, but I'm a big ol' strapping thing, so I just accept it.

I sit down at my desk pretty early in the morning and write all day until about 4 or 5 p.m.

It's so much of what art and creativity are, being able to confront your own demons. If you can do that, you can get through just about everything.

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

Living there [Horse Mesa] was like living in a natural cathedral. Waking up every morning, you walked outside and looked down at the blue lake, then up at the sandstone cliffs--those awe-inspiring layers of red and yellow rock shaped over the millennia, with dozens of black-streaked crevices that temporarily became waterfalls after rainstorms.

Maybe I should have cut him some slack. With his broken wing and lifetime of eating roadkill, he probably had a lot to be ungrateful about. Too much hard luck can create a permanent meanness of spirit in any creature.

Memoir is about handing over you life to someone and saying, This is what I went through, this is who I am, and maybe you can learn something from it.

Mom also hinted a couple of times that it was good I was going to college, since with one failed marriage behind me, I 'd have trouble landing a good husband and would need something to fall back on. "A package that's been opened once doesn't have the same appeal".

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.

Mom could say that in hindsight, but it seemed to me that when you were in the middle of something, it was awful hard to figure out what part of it was God's will and what wasn't.

Mom told us we would have to go shoplifting. Isn't that a sin?" I asked Mom. Not exactly," Mom said. "God doesn't mind you bending the rules a little if you have a good reason. It's sort of like justifiable homicide. This is justifiable pilfering.

Most important thing in life is learning how to fall.

My advice to anyone is to figure out what you're good at - what it is that you love doing the most in life - and figure out a way to make a living from it.

My older sister achieved her dream of being an artist. She's an illustrator living in Manhattan.

No child is born a delinquent. They only became that way if nobody loved them when they were kids. Unloved children grow up to be serial murderers or alcoholics.

One of the many lessons I hope I've learned is how much I underestimated people, their open-mindedness and their willingness to understand. I think, moreover, I underestimated the degree to which everyone has a story. So my advice, for whatever it's worth, is to trust readers, trust the truth and trust the power of storytelling.

One of the most challenging aspects of writing a memoir is finding your own voice, and you should be very careful about being influenced by someone else's voice.

[Optimism] acts as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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

She was developing what Mom called a bit of a sarcastic streak.