256 Quotes by Elizabeth Strout

I wrote the story, but you will bring to it your own experience of life, and some other reader will do the same, and it will become a different story with each reader. I believe that even the time in your life when you read the book will determine how you receive it. Our lives are changing constantly, and therefore not even our own story is always what we think it is.

How did you ever know? You never knew anything, and anyone who thought they knew anything – well, they were in for a great big surprise.

Everyone thinks they know everything, and no one knows a damn thing.

My parents were very, very, very strict.