Anne Tyler Quotes

It is not how much you love someone, but who you are when you are with him.

People always call it luck when you've acted more sensibly than they have.

I didn't really choose to write; I more or less fell into it.

You think we're a family,' Cody said, turning back. 'You think we're some jolly, situation-comedy family when we're in particles, torn apart, torn all over the place, and our mother was a witch.

I think I was born with the impression that what happened in books was much more reasonable, and interesting, and real, in some ways, than what happened in life.

I'm too shy for personal appearances, and I've found out that anytime I talk about my writing, I can't do any writing for many weeks afterward.

It struck her all at once that dealing with other human beings was an awful lot of work.

It seems to me that since I've had children, I've 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.

I wonder how many times we dream that kind of dream-something strange and illogical-and fail to realize God is trying to tell us something.

There is no sound more peaceful than rain on the roof, if you're safe asleep in someone else's house.

It’s like the grief has been covered over with some kind of blanket. It’s still there, but the sharpest edges are .. muffled, sort of. Then, ever now and then, I lift the corner of the blanket just to check, and .. whoa! Like a knife! I’m not sure that will ever change.

I suspect that marriage is like parenthood: every last one of us is an amateur at it.

When you have children, you're obligated to live.

I consciously try to end my novels at a point where I won't have to wonder about my characters ever again.

I've always thought sleep was a wonderful invention. Not that being awake isn't nice too, of course. But when I get up in the morning, I think, boy, only fourteen more hours and I can be back to sleep again ... And I never dream, because it distracts my mind from pure sleeping.

Try Jesus, you won't regret it, a billboard read.

Time, in general, has always been a central obsession of mine - what it does to people, how it can constitute a plot all on its own. So naturally, I am interested in old age.