Tara Westover

“I had to be - I was in school for probably three or four years before I began taking courses in history and political science, and I just started to realize how big the world was. I mean, when I arrived in college, I didn't know anything.”

“I didn't even have a birth certificate until I was 9 years old, which meant that, according to the state of Idaho and the federal government, I just didn't exist.”

“At BYU, I discovered history, then historiography. I became fascinated with the study of historians and historical trends, with the idea that the way we remember the past changes and shifts with our own preoccupations.”

“Anyone who grows up reading the Bible for spiritual reasons, you get accustomed to reading things that are too much for you, too profound for you... Having that belief that you should read them anyway gives you a great advantage over people who only read what they think they can understand.”

“I adore Toni Morrison. I think we would all be better writers if we read more of her.”

“I had a mental breakdown while doing my Ph.D. at Cambridge, soon after I cut off contact with my parents, and I started seeing the university counsellor, one of the best decisions I ever made. There's something very nourishing in setting aside an hour a week to talk.”

“Not knowing my birthday had never seemed strange. I knew I'd been born near the end of September, and each year I picked a day, one that didn't fall on a Sunday because it's no fun spending your birthday in church.”

“BYU was a really positive place for me.”

“I hate the the word 'disempower,' because it seems kind of cliche, but I do think that we take people's ability to self-teach away by creating this idea that that someone else has to do this for you, that you have to take a course, you have to do it in some formal way.”

“We think about education as a stepping stone into a higher socio-economic class, into a better job. And it does do those things. But I don't think that's what it really is. I experienced it as getting access to different ideas and perspectives and using them to construct my own mind.”

“I might just not be a big-city bug.”

“I had grown up preparing for the Days of Abomination, watching for the sun to darken, for the moon to drip as if with blood.”

“Anger can be a good thing. It's a mechanism that your brain uses to get you out of situations that are bad for you. But in terms of leading a peaceful life, it is not very productive.”

“I taught myself algebra and a little grammar, and somehow I scraped a high enough score on the ACT to be admitted to Brigham Young University, even though I had no formal education.”

“I used to roof hay barns for my father. It's dangerous work. Writing is much better.”

“I have books I like very much, but I don't think there are any books that everyone should read. I prefer a world in which some people read this, and others read that.”

“I think you can change your belief, but sometimes your behavior takes a lot longer.”

“My loyalty to my father had increased in proportion to the miles between us.”

“When I was 17, I went to Brigham Young University. That was the first time I had set foot in a classroom.”

“The things about my childhood that I really loved the most, writing about those things was hard because I knew they would never happen again.”