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Joyce Maynard QUOTES

Joyce Maynard QUOTES

1 " There is something about the act of studying an unclothed body, as an artist does, that allows a person to appreciate it as pure form, regardless of the kinds of traits traditionally regarded as imperfections. In a figure drawing class, an obese woman's folds of flesh take on a kind of beauty. You can look at a man's shrunken chest or legs or buttocks with tenderness. Age is not ugly, just poignant. "

― Joyce Maynard , The Good Daughters

2 " Wherever it is you make your home, there is always this other place, this other person, calling to you. Come to me. Come back. "

― Joyce Maynard

3 " Ten years from now, her mother might not even recognize her. Already she was different, but the day would come when she'd be this person her mother had never seen. There would be other people - someone like Carolyn or Alan, or even Violet - who had known her longer than her mother ever did. "

― Joyce Maynard , The Usual Rules

4 " It's not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can't tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself. "

― Joyce Maynard

5 " I tried to think of what my father would tell me. 'Don't let any boy give you shit.' But he'd never said how we should go about preventing this. "

― Joyce Maynard , After Her

6 " The portrait of my parents is a complicated one,
but lovingly drawn. "

― Joyce Maynard

7 " A person who deserves my loyalty receives it. "

― Joyce Maynard , Looking Back: A Chronicle of Growing Up Old in the Sixties

8 " You just want to give up, he said when he was able to speak. Only you keep going. You still have to get up in the morning and pour the cereal in the bowls. You keep on breathing, whether you want to or not. Nobody's around to tell you how it's supposed to work. The usual rules just don't apply anymore.

He was still talking, but she wasn't even sure if it was to her.

When it started, he said, I thought nothing could be worse than those first days. And it wasn't only us, but everyone else you'd see, wandering around like they'd landed on a whole different planet. Instead of just dealing with your own heart getting ripped into pieces, wherever you looked you knew there were other people dealing with the same thing. You couldn't even be alone with it. Like you're out in the ocean and the undertow catches you and you start yelling for help, but then you look around, and all around you in the water for as far as you can see, there's all these other people flailing too.

He sat there for a moment, shaking his head.

You keep getting up in the morning and knowing this will continue maybe ten thousand more mornings. You wish you were the one who died.

How much better would that be? "

― Joyce Maynard , The Usual Rules

9 " It seems the myth survives in our culture still, that a young girl’s worth, measured against that of a great man, may be of lesser consequence… I would say rather that a man who treats those offering up their love and trust as expendable is lesser himself for having done so. There is art, and there are artists. Let’s not confuse the two. "

― Joyce Maynard

10 " whole "

― Joyce Maynard , After Her

11 " She felt everything too deeply, it was like the world was too much for her. "

― Joyce Maynard , Labor Day

12 " The real drug, I came to believe, was love. "

― Joyce Maynard , Labor Day

13 " No, I said. I didn't remember that. There was so much to remember, sometimes the best thing was to forget. "

― Joyce Maynard , Labor Day

14 " You lay your hand against his skin and just rib his back. Blow into his ear. Press that baby up against your own skin and walk outside with him, where the night air will sourround him, and moonlight fall on his face. Whistle, maybe. Dance. Hum. Pray.

(how to calm a crying baby) "

― Joyce Maynard

15 " It’s like life: sometimes the littlest thing turns out to be the most important. "

― Joyce Maynard , Labor Day

16 " If you act like something’s too hard, it will be, he said. You got to believe it’s possible. "

― Joyce Maynard , Labor Day

17 " There was a way of looking at the world where practically every single thing that happened had some kind of double meaning. "

― Joyce Maynard , Labor Day

18 " She was in love with love. "

― Joyce Maynard , Labor Day

19 " A lot of your problem was in your head. You see yourself screwing up, it’s going to happen. "

― Joyce Maynard , Labor Day

20 " It's a great thing when a man knows how to dance, she said. When a man can dance, the world is his oyster."
Adele, Henry's Mother "

― Joyce Maynard , Labor Day