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In my opinion, trying to guess what readers want is the wrong approach. You have to tell your story as best you can and as true to yourself as possible. You have to be honest and fair and vulnerable and foolish and brave, and not care what anyone thinks of it.

Jeannette Walls

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Jeannette Walls
Age: 64
Born: 1960
Born: April 21
Journalist
Writer
Phoenix
Arizona
Opinion
Fairs
Care
Possible
Fair
Best
Anyone
Thinks
Writing
Wrong
Brave
Trying
Story
Guess
Thinking
Tell
Reader
Readers
True
Approach
Vulnerable
Honest
Foolish
Stories

More quotes by Jeannette Walls

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Mom told us we would have to go shoplifting. Isn't that a sin? I asked Mom. Not exactly, Mom said. God doesn't mind you bending the rules a little if you have a good reason. It's sort of like justifiable homicide. This is justifiable pilfering.
Jeannette Walls
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I sit down at my desk pretty early in the morning and write all day until about 4 or 5 p.m.
Jeannette Walls
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Life's too short to care about what other people think. Besides, they should accept us for who we are
Jeannette Walls
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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.
Jeannette Walls
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Look at the way you live. You've sold out. Next thing I know you'll become a Republican. She shook her head. Where are the values I raised you with?
Jeannette Walls
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Anyone who thinks he's too small to make a difference has never been bit by a mosquito
Jeannette Walls
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When I asked my mother, ‘how do I tell people about you’ her answer was ‘tell the truth’. But of course, the truth is never simple.
Jeannette Walls
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I find books that have a moral and spiritual center, that speak to what is really important and lasting, hugely appealing.
Jeannette Walls
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It's the Joshua tree's struggle that gives it its beauty.
Jeannette Walls
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I believe that everyone has some huge talent in them the really lucky ones discover what it is.
Jeannette Walls
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Unlike diamonds, watches were practical. They were for people on the run, people with appointments to keep and schedules to meet.
Jeannette Walls
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Dad was a philosopher and had what he called his Theory of Purpose, which held that everything in life had a purpose, and unless it achieved that purpose, it was just taking up space on the planet and wasting everybody's time.
Jeannette Walls
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When I got a little older, I started writing for the high school newspaper, The Maroon Wave, and that's when I fell in love with journalism.
Jeannette Walls
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She wore tight corsets to give her a teeny waist - I helped her lace them up - but they had the effect of causing her to faint. Mom called it the vapors and said it was a sign of her high breeding and delicate nature. I thought it was a sign that the corset made it hard to breathe.
Jeannette Walls
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Living there [Horse Mesa] was like living in a natural cathedral. Waking up every morning, you walked outside and looked down at the blue lake, then up at the sandstone cliffs--those awe-inspiring layers of red and yellow rock shaped over the millennia, with dozens of black-streaked crevices that temporarily became waterfalls after rainstorms.
Jeannette Walls
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My life is not just about the past.
Jeannette Walls
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But the positive thoughts would give way to negative thoughts, and the negative thoughts seemed to swoop into her mind the way a big flock of black crows takes over the landscape, sitting thick in the trees and on the fence rails and lawns, staring at you in ominous silence.
Jeannette Walls
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Too much hard luck can create a permanent meanness of spirit in any creature.
Jeannette Walls
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Fussing over children who cry only encourages them. That's positive reinforcement for negative behavior.
Jeannette Walls
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You have to find the redeeming quality and love the person for that.
Jeannette Walls