Quote

I went through a period in my life when I had no friends, when the phone never rang, when I thought I would die from loneliness. I know that the real blessing here isn't that I have a book published, but that I have so many people to thank.

Louise Penny

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Louise Penny
Age: 66
Born: 1958
Born: July 1
Author
Journalist
Novelist
Writer
City of Toronto
Thought
Thank
Book
Loneliness
Many
Period
Real
Blessing
Never
Periods
Rang
Went
Published
Would
Dies
Phone
Life
Friends
Phones
People

More quotes by Louise Penny

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Fear lives in the head. And courage lives in the heart. The job is to get from one to the other.
Louise Penny
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Every decade of my life I attempted to write a novel. But I had nothing to say. I was far too self-absorbed, and now I realize I was writing for others, so that they'd applaud me, see my genius, tell me how wonderful I am, or be jealous of my success.
Louise Penny
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The women in the room chatted about love, about childhood, about losing parents, about Mr. Spock, about good books they'd read. They mothered each other.
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What haunted people even, perhaps especially, on their deathbed? What chased them, tortured them and brought some of them to their knees? And [he] thought he had the answer. Regret. Regret for things said, things done, and things not done. Regret for the people they might have been. And failed to be.
Louise Penny
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Myrna could spend happy hours browsing bookcases. She felt if she could just get a good look at a person’s bookcase and their grocery cart, she’d pretty much know who they were.
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In winter the very ground seemed to reach up and grab the elderly, yanking them to earth as though hungry for them.
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Better to accept the wretched truth than struggle, twisting to make a wish a reality.
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Aid workers, when handing out food to starving people, quickly learn that the people fighting for it at the front are the people who need it least. It's the people sitting quietly at the back, too weak to fight, who need it the most. And so too with tragedy.
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Or - perhaps - I should just worry about my own behavior and let others be who they are.
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To be honest, the only thing I ever really wanted to be was a writer - since I read 'Charlotte's Web' as a child.
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Life is change. If you aren't growing and evolving, you're standing still, and the rest of the world is surging ahead.
Louise Penny
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Now here's a good one: you're lying on your deathbed. You have one hour to live. Who is it, exactly, you have needed all these years to forgive?
Louise Penny
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Life is choice. All day, everyday. Who we talk to, where we sit, what we say, how we say it. And our lives become defined by our choices. It's as simple and as complex as that. And as powerful. so when I'm observing that's what I'm watching for. The choices people make
Louise Penny
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I turned down all the requests for the rights to the books, for years, mostly because they wanted the rights to the characters, and to turn it into a TV series. This would have allowed them to do anything they wanted with the characters, and that just wasn't an option for me.
Louise Penny
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I had to learn compassion. Had to learn what it felt like to hate, and to forgive and to love and be loved. And to lose people close to me. Had to feel deep loneliness and sorrow. And then I could write.
Louise Penny
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The four sayings that lead to wisdom: I was wrong I'm sorry I don't know I need help
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I've seen enough successful writers who no longer seem to care when they are recognized with an award, and I think that's just tragic.
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Let every man shovel out his own snow, and the whole city will be passable, said Gamache. Seeing Beauvoir's puzzled expression he added, Emerson. Lake and Palmer? Ralph and Waldo.
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The night is a strawberry.
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A journalist also needs to be disciplined, and so do I. I am, essentially, lazy. Without discipline I'd be just a mass of gummy bears on the sofa instead of on book tour with my eighth novel.
Louise Penny