Joyce Maynard Quotes & Sayings

“It's not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can't tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself.”

“If I told you about all the stories I don't tell, I would be violating the very boundaries I set for myself.”

“A person who deserves my loyalty receives it.”

“I wonder what it is that the people who criticize me for telling this story truly object to: is it that I have dared to tell the story? Or that the story turns out not to be the one they wanted to hear?”

“The painter who feels obligated to depict his subjects as uniformly beautiful or handsome and without flaws will fall short of making art.”

“Many women my age have known the experience of giving up crucial parts of themselves to please the man they love.”

“To share our stories is not only a worthwhile endeavor for the storyteller, but for those who hear our stories and feel less alone because of it.”

“When I was 12 years old, I read 'Nancy Drew' mysteries and biographies of Madame Curie and Florence Nightingale and books about girls who love horses or go to nursing school. I belonged to the Girl Scouts and got A's in school and rarely disobeyed my parents. I still kept a collection of Barbie dolls in my room, and I almost never spoke to boys.”

“There is a theme that runs through my work, and that is: the toxic property of keeping secrets.”

“You write about what you know, and you write about what you want to know.”