17 Quotes by Daniel Gottlieb

More often than not, it’s disrespectful to them (our children) - and disrespectful to their struggle with their tasks in life- if our own anxiety as parents makes us cling to our children. It’s disrespectful is we demand more intimacy than they are willing or able to give. Too much involvement with our children is not an act of love- it’s an act of selfishness.

I think we owe it to our children to share our wisdom. If we share our wisdom for the purpose of changing our children, then that’s hitting them over the head with a hammer or shoving something down their throats. If the wisdom turns into advice, that’s selfish. But if we simply share ourselves and let our children know our hearts, then it’s a gift. And I think it’s a gift we’re responsible for giving them.

As our children turn even five or six degrees away from us, we have to be aware of our fear and our excitement and our hope for them. And as that five or sex degrees turns into ten or twenty degrees, even ninety degrees, we have to monitor those feelings every step of the way-and ultimately realize that our child is another human being and not necessarily and extension of us.

When we stop fighting against death, we are able to wake up to our lives.

I’m not a girl anymore, I’m a woman and my heart beats like prizefighter’s fists, and I have not stopped yet, I will not stop.

Love – at least the pair-bonded, prescribed love – does not conquer all.

Someone Should Write Me a Love Poem but I’m Stuck Doing It Myself.

When you do feel shame, seek out someone who loves and accepts you for who you are, in the intimacy that exposure brings, an amazing opportunity of being loved for who we are.

I was 14 and madly in love for the first time. He was 21. He made me suddenly, unaccustomedly beautiful with his kisses and mix tapes. During the year of elation and longing, he never mentioned that he had a girlfriend who lived across the street.