Jeannette Walls quotes:

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 feel like 'Alice Through the Looking Glass.'

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

When I got a little older, I started writing for the high school newspaper, 'The Maroon Wave,' and that's when I fell in love with journalism.

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

Whenever I'm reading a book I enjoy, I always develop a mental list of the people I want to share it with.

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.

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

Some people who've read my story think I had a terrible childhood and that I was neglected or even abused, while others feel that my parents, while certainly flawed, also had truly wonderful qualities. And that's the way it should be, because in real life two people can look at the same president and one will see a hero and the other a villain.

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.

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.

No one expected you to amount to much," she told me. "Lori was the smart one, Maureen the pretty one, and Brian the brave one. You never had much going for you except that you always worked hard.

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.

Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy. You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more.

...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.

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.

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

People worried too much about their children. Suffering when you're young is good for you. It immunized your body and soul

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.

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

A lady's hair is her crowning glory

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.

You can't cling to the side your whole life, that one lesson every parent needs to teach a child is If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim

You know you're down and out when Okies laugh at you,' she said. With our garbage bag taped window, our tied down hood, and art supplies strapped to the roof, we'd out-Okied the Okies.

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".

Books are my very favorite gift to give. If you give a book to someone and they really respond to it, you feel you've actually changed their life in some way.

But I also hoped that [she] had chosen California because she thought that was her true home, the place where she really belonged, where it was always warm and you could dance in the rain, pick grapes right off the vines, and sleep outside at night under the stars.

Since Mom wasn't exactly the most useful person in the world, one lesson I learned at an early age was how to get things done, and this was a source of both amazement and concern for Mom, who considered my behavior unladylike but also counted on me. "I never knew a girl to have such gumption," she'd say. "But I'm not too sure it's a good thing.

What doesn't kill you will make you stronger

I could see why Archimedes got all excited. There was nothing finer than the feeling that came rushing through you when it clicked and you suddenly understood something that had puzzled you. It made you think it just might be possible to get a handle on this old world after all.

....he said it was interesting. He used the word 'textured'. He said 'smooth' is boring but 'textured' was interesting, and the scar meant that I was stronger than whatever had tried to hurt me.

Nobody's perfect. We're all just one step up from the beasts and one step down from the angels.

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

She wore tight corsets to give her a teeny waist - I helped her lace them up - but they had the effect of causing her to faint. Mom called it the vapors and said it was a sign of her high breeding and delicate nature. I thought it was a sign that the corset made it hard to breathe.

sometimes after I finished a particularly good book, I had the urge to get the library card, find out who else had read the book, and track them down to talk about it

Sometimes something catastrophic can occur in a split second that changes a person's life forever; other times one minor incident can lead to another and then another and another, eventually setting off just as big a change in a body's life.

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

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.

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.

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.

I wanted to let the world know that no one had a perfect life, that even the people who seemed to have it all had their secrets.

Mom always said people worried too much about their children. Suffering when you're young is good for you, she said. It immunized your body and your soul, and that was why she ignored us kids when we cried. Fussing over children who cry only encouraged them, she told us. That's positive reinforcement for negative behavior.

You should never hate anyone, even your worst enemies. Everyone has something good about them. You have to find the redeeming quality and love the person for that.

You have to find the redeeming quality and love the person for that.

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.

Life's too short to care about what other people think. Besides, they should accept us for who we are

You can't cling to the side your whole life, that one lesson every parent needs to teach a child is "If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim

You should never hate anyone, not even your worst enemies. Everyone has something good about them. You had to find the redeeming quality and love the person for that.

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

You didn't need a college degree to become one of the people who knew what was really going on. If you paid attention, you could pick things up on your own.

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

You're not supposed to laugh at your own father. Ever.

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

It's really not that hard to put food on the table if that's what you decide to do.

Once you'd resolved to go, there was nothing to it at all.

You'll never make a fortune working for the boss man

When people kill themselves, they think they're ending the pain, but all they're doing is passing it on to those they leave behind.

We laughed about all the kids who believed in the Santa Clause myth and got nothing but a bunch of cheap plastic toys. 'Years from now, when all the junk they got is broken and long forgotten,' Dad said, ' you'll still have your stars.

Optimism is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Those shining stars, he liked to point out, were one of the special treats for people like us who lived out in the wilderness. Rich city folks, he'd say, lived in fancy apartments, but their air was so polluted they couldn't even see the stars. We'd have to be out of our minds to want to trade places with any of them.

If you want to be reminded of the love of the Lord, just watch the sunrise.

The women I know with strong personalities, the ones who might have become generals or the heads of companies if they were men, become teachers. Teaching is a calling, too. And I've always thought that teachers in their way are holy--angles leading their flocks out of the darkness.

One benefit of Summer was that each day we had more light to read by.

When someone's wounded, the first order of business is to stop the bleeding. You can figure out later how best to help them heal.

The fact is, you don't love me, and you haven't destroyed me. You don't have what it takes to do that.

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

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 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.

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

Everything in life is gray, you know.

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

Most important thing in life is learning how to fall.

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

The best time to tell your story is when you have to tell your story. When it's not really a choice. But then, when you get that first, messy, complicated version down, you have to read it over and be very tough on yourself and ask, 'Well what's the story here?' If you're lucky enough to have someone you trust looking over your shoulder, he or she can help you if [you] lack perspective on your own story.

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.

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.

It's the Joshua tree's struggle that gives it its beauty.

You're in a horse race but you're thinking like a sheep. Sheep don't win horse races.

Teaching is a calling too. And I've always thought that teachers in their way are holy - angels leading their flocks out of the darkness.

Don't worry, God understands,' Mom said. 'He knows that your father is a cross we must bear.

Sometimes you need a little crisis to get your adrenaline flowing and help you realize your potential.

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

If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim

Interesting people always have a past.

When God closes a door, he opens a window, but it's up to you to find it.

Whoever coined the phrase 'a man's got to play the hand that was dealt him' was most certainly one piss-poor bluffer.

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

My life is not just about the past.

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

What I do know is that wondering why you survived don't help you survive.

The dangerous falls were the ones that happened so fast you didn't have time to react

Too much hard luck can create a permanent meanness of spirit in any creature.

You'll never make a fortune working for the boss man.

We're stronger than we realize.

I was so worried that people wouldn't like me or my story.

I always wanted to be a serious journalist.

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

New Yorkers, I figured, just pretended to be unfriendly.

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

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.

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.

That was the thing to remember about all monsters, They love to frighten people, but the minute you stare them down, they turn tail and run.

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.

Unlike diamonds, watches were practical. They were for people on the run, people with appointments to keep and schedules to meet.

All seasons have something to offer

She had her addictions and one of them was reading.

Life there was hard and it made people hard.

Sometimes you have to get sicker before you can get better.

You West Virginia girls are one tough breed," he said. You got that right," I told him.

Things usually work out in the end." "What if they don't?" "That just means you haven't come to the end yet.

One thing about whoring: It put a chicken on the table.

Look at the way you live. You've sold out. Next thing I know you'll become a Republican." She shook her head. "Where are the values I raised you with?

One time I saw a tiny Joshua tree sapling growing not too far from the old tree. I wanted to dig it up and replant it near our house. I told Mom that I would protect it from the wind and water it every day so that it could grow nice and tall and straight. Mom frowned at me. "You'd be destroying what makes it special," she said. "It's the Joshua tree's struggle that gives it its beauty.

I wondered if the fire had been out to get me. I wondered if all fire was related, like Dad said all humans were related, if the fire that had burned me that day while I cooked hot dogs was somehow connected o the fire I had flushed down the toilet and the fire burning at the hotel. I didn't have the answers to those questions, but what I did know was that I lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire. It was the sort of knowledge that kept you on your toes.

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.

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

Why spend the afternoon making a meal that will be gone in an hour," she'd ask us, "when in the same amount of time, I can do a painting that will last forever?

I feel like I failed," I said. "Don't beat yourself up," Jim said. "She might not have turned out like you planned, but that don't mean she turned out wrong.