I like to think of what happens to characters in good novels and stories as knots--things keep knotting up. And by the end of the story--readers see an unknotting of sorts. Not what you expect, not the easy answers you get on TV, not wash and wear philosophies, but a reproduction of believable, emotional experiences.
Terry McMillanIt should be obvious that I wasn't no honor roll student in high school. My favorite class was boys.
Terry McMillanI take what people feel and think, especially when it's different from, very seriously, and I find it liberating.
Terry McMillanI don't trust white critics' judgment about most things that deal with black life, particularly when a black person is the creator.
Terry McMillanToo many of us are hung up on what we don't have, can't have, or won't ever have. We spend too much energy being down, when we could use that same energy – if not less of it – doing, or at least trying to do, some of the things we really want to do.
Terry McMillanYou know, one of my fears about living alone so long is that you get used to doing everything your own way.
Terry McMillanI been saying it for years: church is full of sneaky men posing as honest souls, and they are perpetuators our here looking for women just like you, with giant holes in your hearts, and they can smell when you got a good job and when you lonely as hell.
Terry McMillanNow, I've been known to be attractive on special occasions, and I do my best to project as much beauty as I can muster from deep inside, though I often fail.
Terry McMillanI like doing the readings and the autographing, but the interviewing gets a little tedious because you get asked the same questions every day and sometimes three or four times a day.
Terry McMillanI would like to think that as a result of not just my own experiences, but at least being empathetic and compassionate about other people's experiences and plights and tragedies, that I am affected by it and learn from it.
Terry McMillanPeople need to be re - sometimes we need to reinvent ourselves and then get reacquainted with our better selves.
Terry McMillanIt's not that marriage itself is bad; it's the people we marry who give it a bad name.
Terry McMillanI'm not trying to be a middle aged centerfold, I just want to look at myself naked and not be disgusted.
Terry McMillanThere is a price for popularity. Critics look for your weaknesses, your flaws, anything that makes the work seem like a fluke and not seem worthy of all the attention it's getting.
Terry McMillanI'd crack up without my music. It's the best company you can have, really. It don't say 'no' or 'maybe,' or ask no questions.
Terry McMillanI can't stand that - those women in 'Waiting to Exhale' now. I can't stand them. But that's because I'm 53 and not 33. But what they were experiencing at 33, I identified with it.
Terry McMillanI just believe that young people need to be able to learn how to write in their own voice. Just like a musician, you pride yourself on having your own distinct sound.
Terry McMillanI was tired of chasing ghosts, hollow men who were outside my comfort zone, men who had nothing to give me except a rush. It was all I asked for, and all I ever got.
Terry McMillanI try to create characters that I am fascinated by on some level or intrigued by or can't stand.
Terry McMillanlife is like a jigsaw puzzle, you have to see the whole picture, then put it together piece by piece!
Terry McMillanI love writing in first person more than third. I have to basically suspend my own world. I don't exist. I'm just a conduit. So I can be eight years old. I can be the mother of a kid that you find out certain things I'm not going to say.
Terry McMillanI'm the only one who can stop me.. I'm the one who's been sitting at the stoplight all these years, waiting for the light to turn green.
Terry McMillanBack then I confused passions and orgasms with love. It look me years to realize the two weren't synonymous.
Terry McMillanLet me put it this way: when I read, I learned the world was not as small as my house. And that everybody in my home town was not representative of the way people in the world were raised. And that was what saved me.
Terry McMillanCruising the Internet doesn't count as writing. Neither does answering e-mail. Before you check Twitter & FB and do other similar tasks that get in the way of writing, write first. (I really need to take my own advice here!)
Terry McMillanAs a writer, you get to bring attention to something without preaching. I don't believe in being didactic. So if you dramatize something, you automatically bring attention to it if people read it.
Terry McMillanParents can ruin children, and sometimes that's a learned behavior. Sometimes you can't blame your parents for it, sometimes you can. I think to me, that's what the whole paradox is, is people that have children that don't even know how to raise them.
Terry McMillanWhy is it that if you happen to be black and over six feet tall, everybody thinks you supposed to play basketball or football?
Terry McMillanAs far as young kids go, my primary interest is to get parents to read to their kids. That’s about the most you can do, I think.
Terry McMillanI'm more interested in interpersonal relationships - between lovers families, siblings. That's why I write about how we treat each other.
Terry McMillan