I'll tell you the truth - I went to a women's college, Barnard, the most selective college for women in America today. If there's one thing I came out of Barnard with, because it was a women's college and a great institution of higher education, it was fearlessness.
Anna QuindlenI was doing the family grocery shopping accompanied by two children, an event I hope to see included in the Olympics in the near future.
Anna QuindlenBut it's important, while we are supporting lessons in respecting others, to remember that many of our youngest kids need to learn to respect themselves. You learn your worth from the way you are treated.
Anna QuindlenIt's an odd kind of feeling because it sort of reminds me of being five again. When you're a five-year-old, you don't pay any attention to what anyone thinks of you. You just sort of are in your skin.
Anna QuindlenThe 1992 US Olympic basketball team is the best sports team ever, the equivalent of rounding up the greatest American writers of the last century or so and watching them collaborate: 'OK, Twain, you do the dialogue and hand off to Faulkner. He'll do the interior monologue. Hemingway will edit - no, don't make that face, you know you overwrite. And be nice to Cheever. He's young, but he's got a good ear. Wharton and Cather can't play - they're girls.'
Anna QuindlenWhen you look at the women that have made a real difference in the world throughout history, what theyโve done has almost always been defined by fearlessness. Thatโs something I came to at a certain point; I wish Iโd come to it younger. Stop looking over your shoulder โ thereโs nobody who matters back there.
Anna Quindlen