299 Quotes by Anne Tyler

"Justine hated pantsuits. Whenever she saw one, she had an urge to tell the owner some scandalous fortune, loudly enough to be heard everywhere: 'The father of your next-to-last baby has run off with a cigar-smoking redhead."

"He thought of how it would be if his father returned some time in he future, when Cody was a man. "Look at what I've accomplished," Cody would tell him. "Notice where I've got to, how far I've come without you." Was it something I said? Was it something I did? Was it something I didn't do, that made you go away?"

"When you have children, you're obligated to live."

"Ever consider what pets must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul - chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we're the greatest hunters on earth!"

"I was standing in the schoolyard waiting for a child when another mother came up to me. Have you found work yet? she asked. Or are you still just writing?"

"It's true that writing is a solitary occupation, but you would be surprised at how much companionship a group of imaginary characters can offer once you get to know them."

"The hardest novel to write was Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant."

"I don't type [when I write] because . . . I often have the feeling that everything flows directly from my right hand."

"He was wondering if there was some cryptic, cultish mark on his door that told all the crazy people he'd have trouble saying no."

"It seems to me that good novels celebrate the mystery in ordinary life, and summing it all up in psychological terms strips the mystery away"