Quotes by Anne Tyler

“I remember leaving the hospital - thinking, Wait, are they going to let me just walk off with him? I dont know beans about babies! I dont have a license to do this. [Were] just amateurs.”

“Ten fingers, Ten toes Shes laughter and teardrops So small and brand new And amazingly angelic Shes sent to bless you Shes one special Baby The best of lifes treasure And will grant and bless you Many hours of great pleasure.”

“Every baby needs a lap.”

“It sometimes happens, even in the best of families, that a baby is born. This is not necessarily cause for alarm. The important thing is to keep your wits about you and borrow some money.”

“If one feels the need of something grand, something infinite, something that makes one feel aware of God, one need not go far to find it. I think that I see something deeper, more infinite, more eternal than the ocean in the expression of the eyes of a little baby when it wakes in the morning and coos or laughs because it sees the sun shining on its cradle.”

“None of my own experiences ever finds its way into my work. However, the stages of my life -- motherhood, middle age, etc. -- often influence my subject matter.”

“She thinks the people she loves are better than they really are, and so then she starts changing things around to suit her view of them”

“While armchair travelers dream of going places, traveling armchairs dream of staying put.”

“Ever consider what pets must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul - chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think were the greatest hunters on earth!”

“Ive always thought a hotel ought to offer optional small animals. I mean a cat to sleep on your bed at night, or a dog of some kind to act pleased when you come in. You ever notice how a hotel room feels so lifeless?”

“People always call it luck when youve acted more sensibly than they have.”

“I never think about the actual process of writing. I suppose I have a superstition about examining it too closely.”

“II would advise any beginning writer to write the first drafts as if no one else will ever read them -- without a though about publication -- and only in the last draft to consider how the work will look from the outside.”

“My family can always tell when Im well into a novel because the meals get very crummy.”

Im beginning to think that maybe its not just how much you love someone. Maybe what matters is who you are when youre with them.

It is very difficult to live among people you love and hold back from offering them advice.

Ive never quite believed that one chance is all I get

The one ironclad rule is that I have to try. I have to walk into my writing room and pick up my pen every weekday morning.

Ah, God, its barbaric, however you look at it, he told Ruth.What, cremation? she asked.Death.

It seems to me that since Ive had children, Ive grown richer and deeper. They may have slowed down my writing for a while, but when I did write, I had more of a self to speak from.