Jeannette Walls

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

“I found out that people are incredibly compassionate and kind. It really changed my view of the world.”

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

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

“Life there was hard and it made people hard.”

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

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

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

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

“Everything in life is gray, you know.”

“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.”

“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.”

“I never thought 'The Glass Castle' would be a movie. It's just too complicated.”

“I was going to some fabulous party, and my taxi got stuck in traffic, and I looked out the window, and I saw a homeless woman rooting through the garbage, and I realized it was my mother. And I was so mortified that I ducked down, and I hid.”

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