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Ayelet Waldman

Ayelet Waldman Quotes

Novelist

Ayelet Waldman is a distinguished American novelist known for her works that delve into themes of morality, family, and law. Born on December 11, 1964, she has made substantial contributions to the literary world with her distinctive storytelling and thought-provoking narratives.

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All Children Mother Ifs Thinking Kids Feels Husband Knows My Children Want

Famous Ayelet Waldman Quotes

“I tend to approach giving interviews with the same sense of circumspection and restraint as I approach my writing. That is to say, virtually none. When asked what I made of blogs like my own, blogs written by parents about their children, I said, 'A blog like this is narcissism in its most obscene flowering.'”

Giving Writing Children Made Said Parent My Own Written Approach Interviews Narcissism Restraint Blogs Obscene Flowering Circumspection

Author:Ayelet Waldman

“I used to refer to myself as a 'theoretical anorexic,' just as crazy when it came to body image, but saved by a lack of self-discipline. My daughters do everything better than I do - they're smarter, more beautiful, happier. What if they end up better at anorexia, too?”

Ifs Ends Self Body Beautiful Used Mother Crazy Discipline Daughter Saved What If My Daughter Smarter Self Discipline Body Image Theoretical Anorexia Anorexics

Author:Ayelet Waldman

“I wish I could view the belly that oozes over the top of my pants as a badge of maternal honor. I do try. I make sure that the women whose looks I admire all have sufficient fat reserves to survive a famine, and I make a lot of snide comments about the skeletal likes of Lara Flynn Boyle and Paris Hilton.”

Trying Looks Wish Views Honor Likes Fats Admire Paris Sufficient Comment Pants Reserves Belly Famine Badges Over The Top

Author:Ayelet Waldman

“I wrote three novels in six months, with a clarity of focus and attention to detail that I had never before experienced. This type of sublime creative energy is characteristic of the elevated and productive mood state known as hypomania.”

Source: A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life

“If only shame were a reliable engine for behavior modification. All it does is make me feel bad, which inspires me to bust open a bag of cheese popcorn, which then makes me feel crappy about my weight.”

Ifs Feels Doe Inspire Behavior Weight Shame Bags Engines Cheese Popcorn Modification Behavior Modification

Author:Ayelet Waldman

“The biggest challenge for any craft person or artist is to accept the constraints of their medium and make something beautiful despite them. That's kind of fun, actually.”

Kind Persons Beautiful Artist Fun Challenges Accepting Mediums Despite Crafts Constraints Something Beautiful

Author:Ayelet Waldman

“The Q I loathe and despise, the Q every single writer I know loathes and despises, is this one: 'Where,' the reader asks, 'do you get your ideas?' It's a simple question, and my usual response is a kind of helpless, 'I don't know.'”

Knows Kind Ideas Asks Simple Reader Response Usual Despise Helpless Loathe

Author:Ayelet Waldman

“The thing about youthful offenders is that no one seems to care about them. Most people don't like adolescents - even the good ones can be snarky and unpleasant. Combine the antipathy we feel toward the average teenager with the fear inspired by youth violence, and you have a population that no one wants to deal with.”

People Want Feels Seems Care Deals Violence Youth Inspired Average Population Teenager Offenders Antipathy

Author:Ayelet Waldman

“Why is it that loving something provides such little protection from betrayal?”

Littles Betrayal Protection Loving Something

Author:Ayelet Waldman

“Love & Marriage are about work & Compromise. They're about seeing someone for what he is, being disappointed and deciding to stick around anyway. They're about commitment and comfort, not some kind of sudden, hysterical recognition.”

Kind Seeing Comfort Commitment Sticks Compromise Recognition Disappointed Hysterical Being Disappointed

Author:Ayelet Waldman

“I think it's worth trying to be a mother who delights in who her children are, in their knock-knock jokes and earnest questions. A mother who spends less time obsessing about what will happen, or what has happened, and more time reveling in what is.”

Thinking Trying Children Happens Mother Happened Jokes Delight More Time Earnest Obsessing

Author:Ayelet Waldman

“Let's all commit ourselves to the basic civility of minding our own business. Failing that, let's go back to a time when we were nasty and judgmental, but only behind one another's backs.”

Behinds Failing Commit Nasty Civility Judgmental Own Business

Book:Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace

Source: Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace

“The capacity for extravagant emotion that my husband finds so attractive in me can be exhausting, especially to a child. My moods are mercurial, and this can be terrifying. I know, because I was a daughter of a mother with a changeable temperament.”

Knows Children Mother Emotion Husband Daughter Capacity Mood Attractive My Husband Temperament Exhausting Extravagant

Book:Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace

Source: Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace

“When my first daughter was born, my husband held her in his hands and said, 'My God, she's so beautiful.' I unwrapped the baby from her blankets. She was average size, with long thin fingers and a random assortment of toes. Her eyes were close set, and she had her father's hooked nose. It looked better on him.”

Firsts Long Said Hands Eye Beautiful Mother Father Born Baby Husband Daughter Fingers Average Size Noses My Husband Her Eyes Toes Blanket Hooked

Author:Ayelet Waldman

“I mean, I absolutely call myself a feminist. And by that, I mean a woman who believes that your opportunities should not be constrained by your gender, that women should be entitled to the same opportunities as men.”

Men Inspirational Should Believe Mean Motivational Opportunity Feminist Gender Entitled

Author:Ayelet Waldman

“The only difference between a writer and someone who wants to be a writer is discipline.”

Want Writing Differences Discipline

Author:Ayelet Waldman

“I had a second trimester abortion. I was pregnant with a much-wanted child who was diagnosed with a genetic abnormality. I made a choice to terminate the pregnancy. It was my third pregnancy, and I was very obviously showing. More important, I could feel the baby move.”

Feels Children Made Important Wanted Moving Choices Baby Thirds Abortion Pregnancy Pregnant Were Pregnant Abnormality

Author:Ayelet Waldman

“Aborting my baby is the most serious of the many maternal crimes I tally in my head when I am at my lowest, when the Bad Mother label seems to fit best. Rocketship was my baby. And I killed him.”

Seems Mother Crime Serious Baby Fit Labels Lowest My Baby Bad Mother

Author:Ayelet Waldman

“By the time the children go to bed, I am as drained as any mother who has spent her day working, car pooling, building Lego castles and shopping for the precisely correct soccer cleat.”

Children Mother Car Building Bed Soccer Shopping Castles Drained Legos Cleats

Author:Ayelet Waldman

“Because of my bipolar disorder, I tend to these mixed states, which are depressed but loud and agitated. So I can be terribly irritable. I go to cognitive behavioral therapy in order not to yell at my children.”

Children I Can States Order Loud My Children Therapy Disorder Cognitive Bipolar Bipolar Disorder Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Cognitive Therapy

Author:Ayelet Waldman

“Courage is impulsive; it is narcissism tempered with nihilism.”

Narcissism Nihilism Impulsive

Book:Love and Other Impossible Pursuits

Source: Love and Other Impossible Pursuits

“I love my husband more than I love my children.”

Children Husband My Children My Husband Love My Husband I Love My Husband I Love My Children Love My Children Bad Mother

Author:Ayelet Waldman

“Think about it, I say. How many straight men maintain inappropriately intimate relationships with their mothers? How many shop with them? I want a gay son. People laugh, but they assume I'm kidding. I'm not.”

People Thinking Men Want Mother Inspiring Laughing Son Gay Assuming Intimate Shops Intimate Relationships Gay Son

Author:Ayelet Waldman

“For a couple of months there I was shrieking like a banshee.”

Months Couple Banshees

Author:Ayelet Waldman

“I'm sure there are people who survive tragedy without humor, but I've never met any of them. Nor would I be particularly interested in writing about them if I did meet them.”

People Ifs Writing Mets Tragedy

Author:Ayelet Waldman

“If you focus all of your emotional passion on your children and you neglect the relationship that brought that family into existence... eventually, things can go really, really wrong.”

Ifs Children Passion Existence Focus Emotional Our Children Your Children Neglect

Author:Ayelet Waldman

About the Author

Born: December 11, 1964
Known for: Novelist
Quotes: 126

Related Topics

Children Mother Ifs Thinking Kids Feels Husband Knows My Children Want

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of GraceRelated source material

A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My LifeRelated source material

Red Hook RoadRelated source material

Love and Other Impossible PursuitsRelated source material

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