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I was so worried that people wouldn't like me or my story.

Jeannette Walls

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Jeannette Walls
Age: 64
Born: 1960
Born: April 21
Journalist
Writer
Phoenix
Arizona
Worried
Wouldn
Story
Stories
Like
People

More quotes by Jeannette Walls

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Why spend the afternoon making a meal that will be gone in an hour, she'd ask us, when in the same amount of time, I can do a painting that will last forever?
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 hadn’t been paying much attention to things like the sunrise, but that old sun had been coming up anyway. It didn’t really care how I felt, it was going to rise and set regardless of whether I noticed it, and if I was going to enjoy it, that was up to me.
Jeannette Walls
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You can't cling to the side your whole life, that one lesson every parent needs to teach a child is If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim
Jeannette Walls
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Mom also hinted a couple of times that it was good I was going to college, since with one failed marriage behind me, I 'd have trouble landing a good husband and would need something to fall back on. A package that's been opened once doesn't have the same appeal.
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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I wanted to let the world know that no one had a perfect life, that even the people who seemed to have it all had their secrets.
Jeannette Walls
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Mom always said people worried too much about their children. Suffering when you're young is good for you, she said. It immunized your body and your soul, and that was why she ignored us kids when we cried. Fussing over children who cry only encouraged them, she told us. That's positive reinforcement for negative behavior.
Jeannette Walls
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Don't you make fun of me or my children! Some babies are premature. Mine were all postmature. That's why they're so smart. Their brains had longer to develop.
Jeannette Walls
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Whoever coined the phrase 'a man's got to play the hand that was dealt him' was most certainly one piss-poor bluffer.
Jeannette Walls
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Interesting people always have a past.
Jeannette Walls
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I reached my full height at age 11, and I was clumsy as all get-out - all elbows and knees, couldn't get up a flight of stairs without falling down. I wanted to be a cute, petite blonde, but I'm a big ol' strapping thing, so I just accept it.
Jeannette Walls
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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.
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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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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God deals us all different hands. How we play 'em is up to us.
Jeannette Walls
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It's really not that hard to put food on the table if that's what you decide to do.
Jeannette Walls
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I never had any question that my parents loved me. I had a real sense of self confidence.
Jeannette Walls
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I found out that people are incredibly compassionate and kind. It really changed my view of the world.
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