Adriana Trigiani quotes:

I have held the following jobs: office temp, ticket seller in movie theatre, cook in restaurant, nanny, and phone installer at the Super Bowl in New Orleans.

You never know when some small thing will lead to a big idea. Travel is very inspirational - but it's in the ordinary that I find my themes of love and work and family.

Food is so important - it sustains us, it provides a social focal point, and it is fun. I cannot unravel the difference between love in my family and the preparation of food because they are so closely woven.

I loved to read, still do, and it seemed that the writing was a result of the love of books and reading and libraries.

But the most precious research to me came from the paperwork filed on behalf of my grandparents and great-grandfather. The ship's manifest showed that they could read and write. I am still emotional when I look at those boxes checked yes.

All the things I thought I was - simple and plain and sometime funny - are very small words. They do not begin to describe me. They do not begin to express what is inside of me. I have value, and I have worth. I cannot be replaced like old shoes or taken for granted like tap water.

Food was celebration, conversation, and nourishment. The table is where the big decisions of the family are made and all the arguing takes place.

Mama always said a good family has one heartbeat. No one knows you like the people you live with, and no one will take up your cause to the outside world quite like your blood relatives.

I come from hardworking, determined people on both sides of my family... the kind who live with a hard reality from which much strength comes.

And when you clear away the cobwebs of the description of every job in the world, at the bottom of that job is service. It's service. And I took that ethic and applied it to my writing craft.

I care what my reader thinks. There is no fancy recommendation you can give me that would matter to me as much as Mary Jane from Youngstown writing me a letter. There is not one. Don't need it, don't want it, don't require it, does not fill up my soul. It's about her, not about the rest of it.

Everything has to be clean and orderly when I sit down to write. I have candles going, and small objects that remind me of what I am working on, or bring me into the world of the character.

Book clubs are the best thing that has happened to the world of publishing.

I'm very organized - and the best thing - when you love your work, you don't mind putting in 15 hour days. It's joyful.

Writing is writing. It's an abiding, wonderful talent, craft, gift that stays with you your whole life. And you can go in different forms, and you can try them. Look at me: I'm writing novels because I found something I love because I tried it.

If there is one thing I hope my books do always and forever, its that they honor working people.

I like it when my mother smiles. And I especially like it when I make her smile.

Pomegranate Soup is glorious, daring and delightful. I adored the Iranian sisters, Marjan, Bahar and Layla, who are looking to build a life, start a business and find love in a place so far from home. Ireland has never been more beautiful - the perfect setting for this story filled with humor, hope and possibility.

I fell in love with reading when I was allowed to choose whatever books I wanted to check out of the library. I was around nine years old when I began choosing my own books in earnest.

If there is one thing I hope my books do always and forever, it's that they honor working people.

Energy has to be fed from a source. If you don't feed the source, it dissipates entirely.Same is true of liking a boy. If you cut off the thoughts, if you stop pinning, you're free to find a boy who is attainable.

A good mother is irreplaceable.

We hang out, we help one another, we tell one another our worst fears and biggest secrets, and then just like real sisters, we listen and don't judge.

I am in total silence when I write - I don't even like the sound of the dryer going - I like the quiet.

I even love the smell of books.

The good things that happen to us were meant to happen, and the bad things that happen are lessons meant to teach us to be better.

I began as a dramatist in the theater, so I'm always thinking about how a story moves, what it looks like, how to engage the senses, how dialogue sounds, what feels authentic and sounds real, what's funny, how to build distinctive and original characters - all the aspects of playwriting, scene-building, the architecture of dramatizing.

I look at my roommates who are so proud of me that it makes me proud.

This is where men and women are different, we can put aside petty competition for relationships - they can't. It interferes.

There's nothing an artist needs more - even more than excellent tools and stamina - than a deadline.

That's when you know for sure somebody loves you. They figure out what you need and they give it to you -- without you asking.

If only men came made to order. It's so hard to find a decent fellow.

I don't settle in any other area of my life when it comes to excellence, so why should I lower my standards when it comes to boys?

It's the secret to happiness, you know. Only take what you need.

I'm writing novels because I found something I love because I tried it. Don't be afraid to shake it up.

I have been a joy to live with all spring: Upbeat, warm and tender, uncomplicated, and loving. I am no trouble at all. You could press me into dough and make sugar cookies out of me, I've been so sweet.

The wedding vows are a license to be a complete jerk, with full knowledge that the person you married has agreed, no matter how large a horse's ass you are, to stay by your side until death. A fool could tell you this is a bad deal.

I love rhinestones, faux jewelry.

That's when you know for sure somebody loves you. They figure out what you need and they give it to you - without you asking.

No one worries about you like your mother, and when she is gone, the world seems unsafe, things that happen unwieldy. You cannot turn to her anymore, and it changes your life forever. There is no one on earth who knew you from the day you were born; who knew why you cried, or when you'd had enough food; who knew exactly what to say when you were hurting; and who encouraged you to grow a good heart. When that layer goes, whatever is left of your childhood goes with her.

But what Mom never told me is that along the way, you find sisters, and they find you. Girls are cool that way.

Money doesn't have anything have anything to do with the magnificence of a person. It doesn't. What matters is what you make. Whether it's a cake for bingo night or a costume for a saint or a wall of water-whatever you pour into this life is what makes you rich.

Anything you ever make that matters takes a long time. Some artists never see their work in front of an audience, so for them 15 years is a blink of an eye. I am nothing but grateful.

Beware the things of this world that can mean everything or nothing.

I love actors and I love to create an environment where they feel safe to connect and thrive and try things, to fail and succeed and flourish and fly.

Motherhood changes everything.

When a girl is beautiful, she gets to pick - she never has to wait for someone to choose her.

Art makes the spirit soar. And when the spirit is lifted, life follows.

I will probably always cry myself to sleep, but knowing this, someday the tears won't be sad, or filled with regret. Maybe they will be joyful

Sometimes we get our hearts broken, only to have the right person come along to mend them.

My mother was an avid readerShe loved books about romance. Books that took place in faraway places and times. Stories with costumes

Two different things. Work is survival, and love sustains you. You have work anytime. But love? Not always.

If a man walks in beauty, he will create, and when he creates, he prospers.

I've learned one important lesson in my life, and I'm going to share it with you. Don't worry about bad things that haven't happened yet. It will save you a lot of anxiety.

This is one of those times when explaining a feeling cannot measure up to actually having the feeling

Relief is a wonderful emotion, highly underrated. In fact, I prefer it to elation or joy. Relief lets the air out of the Tire of Pain.

The only urgent thing in life is the pursuit of love. You get that one right, and you've solved the mystery.

Our faces will become works of art that our grandchildren will treasure.

A handwritten letter carries a lot of risk. It's a one-sided conversation that reveals the truth of the writer. Furthermore, the writer is not there to see the reaction of the person he writes to, so there's a great unknown to the process that requires a leap of faith. The writer has to choose the right words to express his sentences, and then, once he has sealed the envelope, he has to place those thoughts in the hands of someone else, trusting that the feelings will be delivered, and that the recipient will understand the writer's intent. How childish to think that could be easy.

Moments are history. If you have enough of them, they become a story.

Isn't this the truth of any good mother? That in all of our lives. We worry only about those we brought into this world, regardless of whether they loved us back or treated us fairly or understood our shortcomings.

And so, when I was a young writer I always worked hard on imagery, and I knew that the roots of imagery were the senses - and that if my readers could feel, taste and see what I was talking about, I would be able to tell them a story.

Writing comedy is the greatest spiritual gift you can give to anybody anytime.

A library is a home filled with our stories. On every shelf, we see ourselves, experience our collective conscious, describe our dreams and our great longing for times that have passed, the sterling moment of the present and the glorious future known only in our imaginations.

I used to believe my art had to be about the things that brought me joy and gave me hope. But I learned that art can be found in all of life, even in pain.

People have often told me that one of their strongest childhood memories is the scent of their grandmother's house. I never knew my grandmothers, but I could always count of the Bookmobile.

This should tell you everything you need to know about guys. They only go after what they know they can get. We girls, on the other hand, aim really high. We take a leap...

Looking back, now, I realize that you only ever need one person who lights up that way when you enter a room. One person is all it takes to give a kid confidence.

But a child's joy is doubled for the mother, and the sound of her son's laughter began to her heart, a feat she had never believed possible

The Wise County Bookmobile is one of the most beautiful sights in the world to me. When I see it lumbering down the mountain road like a tank . . . I flag it down like an old friend. I've waited on this corner every Friday since I can remember. The Bookmobile is just a government truck, but to me it's a glittering royal coach delivering stories and knowledge and life itself. I even love the smell of books. People have often told me that one of their strongest childhood memories is the scent of their grandmother's house. I never knew my grandmothers, but I could always count on the Bookmobile.

Having a purpose is the little secret of the nonpretties. Something to do always beats something to look at.

Women move through the world never knowing their power.

All you needed is what every girl needs, a good friend. Someone to talk to, to share with, to run things by...

There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who want to know the facts, and those who want to make up a nice story to feel better. I wish I was the kind who made up stories.

Love has a funny way of showing up when you aren't looking for it and didn't plan on it.

When people are filled to the brim with love, they are their most beautiful.

Maybe a first love exists to reaffirm the best parts of yourself, the choices you made when you didn't worry about the consequences. Maybe a first love exists to remind you to be brave in the moment, to stand up for your feelings, instead of shrinking back in the face of potential loneliness.

For a woman, love is the highest dream, and if a man promises to build a ladder tall enough to reach it, she believes him, hikes up her skirt, and follows him to the stars.

I don't use a crap camera, I don't eat junk, and I'm not going to a dance where the boys are bores

A practical girl never pines; she takes action.

The intimacy. The deepest level of love. The knowledge that someone understands you, is rooting for you, is sharing your life.