Quotessence
Home / Authors / Ayelet Waldman Biography
Ayelet Waldman

Ayelet Waldman Biography

Novelist

Related Quotes

“In 1934, Bill W., cofounder of AA [Alcoholics Anonymous], was treated for his alcoholism with a hallucinogenic belladonna alkaloid. The resulting mystical experience led him to become sober and inspired him to write the book and cofound the organization that have changed the lives of so many millions around the world. In the 1950's Bill W underwent LSD therapy, and found his experience so inspiring that the sought to have the drug made part of the AA program.”

LsdHallucinationHallucinogenicPsychadelics
Book:A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life
Create image

“That was true, Iris would sometimes think, about marriage: it was only a boat, too. A wooden boat, difficult to build, even more difficult to maintain, whose beauty derived at least in part from its unlikelihood. Long ago the pragmatic justifications for both marriage and wooden-boat building had been lost or superseded. Why invest countless hours, years, and dollars in planing and carving, gluing and fastening, caulking and fairing, when a fiberglass boat can be had at a fraction of the cost? Why struggle to maintain love and commitment over decades when there were far easier ways to live, ones that required no effort or attention to prevent corrosion and rot? Why continue to pour your heart into these obsolete arts? Because their beauty, the way they connect you to your history and to the living world, justifies your efforts. A long marriage, like a classic wooden boat, could be a thing of grace, but only if great effort was devoted to its maintenance. At first your notions of your life with another were no more substantial than a pattern laid down in plywood. Then year by year you constructed the frame around the form, and began layering memories, griefs, and small triumphs like strips of veneer planking bent around the hull of everyday routine. You sanded down the rough edges, patched the misunderstandings, faired the petty betrayals. Sometimes you sprung a leak. You fell apart in rough weather or were smashed on devouring rocks. But then, as now, in the teeth of a storm, when it seemed like all was lost, the timber swelled, the leak sealed up, and you found that your craft was, after all, sea-kindly.”

LoveMarriage
Book:Red Hook Road
Create image

“Gym class was, of course, where the strongest, best-looking kids were made captains and chose us spazzes last. More important, it was where the figures of supposed authority allowed them to do so. Forget the work our parents did molding our minds and values. Everything fell apart as soon as we put on those maroon polyester gym suits.”

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

“I certainly don't think it's inevitable that we don't love children who don't carry our own DNA. If that were true we wouldn't have millions of successful adoptions to consider. I do think that it's harder to love a child when you come into that child's life after the unrequited passion of infancy and early childhood has passed.”

IfsThinkingChildrenPassionMillionsSuccessfulChildhoodHarderInevitableAdoptionDnaInfancyUnrequitedChildren LoveEarly Childhood
Author:Ayelet Waldman
Create image

“I think I wish I had never spanked my children, but I have. And they remember every instance like they tattooed it on their palms. I think it's a terrible lesson, to use physical punishment to make a point about not behaving, not being kind to their siblings, to other people. I mean that's just absurd. But I've lost it, I understand it.”

PeopleThinkingKindMeanChildrenUseRememberLostWishTerribleLessonsPunishmentAbsurdInstanceMy ChildrenBe KindPalmsSiblingTattooed
Author:Ayelet Waldman
Create image

“When we choose to have an abortion, we must do so understanding the full ramifications of what we are doing. Anything less feels to me to be hypocritical, a selfish abnegation of reality and responsibility.”

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

“Those of us whose parenting style can be described as "a series of reflexes, instincts, and minute-by-minute adjustments," as Julie of A Little Pregnant puts it, rather than as a philosophy, are less invested in our own practices. What we do is often less a matter of conviction than one of convenience. What we need to remember is that there is no need to apologize for that, even in the face of the most red-faced outrage.”

NeedsLittlesMatterPhilosophyRememberFacesPracticeMinutesStyleRedSeriesInstinctConvictionPregnantApologizingConvenienceAdjustmentOutrageReflexesParenting Styles
Author:Ayelet Waldman
Create image

“I really think we were charting a course to having a more sane response to mass incarceration, to drug use, and to understanding that the war on drugs has resulted only in the empowerment of vast criminal enterprises and the destruction of democracies around the world. And all that is coming to a miserable, horrific halt.”

ThinkingWorldWarUseCoursesUnderstandingDemocracyDrugMassEmpowermentDestructionResponseCriminalsAround The WorldMiserableEnterpriseSaneHaltWar On DrugsHorrificIncarcerationDrug UseMass IncarcerationCharting
Author:Ayelet Waldman
Create image