“Since Mom wasn't exactly the most useful person in the world, one lesson I learned at an early age was how to get things done, and this was a source of both amazement and concern for Mom, who considered my behavior unladylike but also counted on me. "I never knew a girl to have such gumption," she'd say. "But I'm not too sure it's a good thing.”

American author and journalist

Jeannette Walls is an American author and journalist, best known for her memoir The Glass Castle and for her work as a former gossip columnist for MSNBC.com. She has 95 quotes on the site. The Glass Castle, published in 2005, recounts the unsettled, nomadic childhood she wrote about in memoir form. Walls has also been recognized with the Alex Award and the Christopher Award in 2006, and her writing is closely associated with personal narrative and family memory.