Judith Guest Quotes & Sayings

Writers don't write to inform other people, they write to find out something themselves. — Judith Guest

Everything seems excessive, now, and too intense, too important. — Judith Guest

I am also working on a couple of short stories for anthologies. This is new to me and I'm enjoying it. — Judith Guest

Autonomy is the whole thing; it's what unhappy people are missing. They have given the power to run their lives to other people. — Judith Guest

Depression is not sobbing and crying and giving vent, it is plain and simple reduction of feeling. — Judith Guest

Depending on the reality one must face, one may prefer to opt for illusion. — Judith Guest

Sometimes you are being interviewed by someone and you think, if I knew this person they'd be my best friend. Other times you're being interviewed by a complete jerk. — Judith Guest

Feeling is not selective, I keep telling you that. You can't feel pain, you aren't gonna feel anything else, either. — Judith Guest

Let the emotional weight of a scene rest on the dialogue wherever possible. This is the easy way to avoid overinterpretation, which seems to be what turns a scene from sympathetic to sentimental. — Judith Guest

The 'creator' and the 'editor' - two halves of the writer whole - should sleep in separate rooms. — Judith Guest

She hands him his coffee; crosses to the doorway; motes of dust flutter nervously in her wake. — Judith Guest

The monotonous beauty of wealth. — Judith Guest

I notice when I'm on these trips, I read like mad. It's the only thing that seems to center me, bring me back to remembering who I am. Or forgetting who I am! — Judith Guest

For me being depressed means you can spend all day in bed, and still not get a good night's rest. — Judith Guest

To have a reason to get up in the morning, it is necessary to have some kind of guiding principle. A belief of some kind — Judith Guest

You have to live your life according to what comforts you, not what the rest of your family thinks you ought to be doing. — Judith Guest

The small seed of despair cracks open and sends experimental tendrils upward to the fragile skin of calm holding him together. — Judith Guest

It's always obvious to me when someone is looking at me with an idea of who I am and hoping that that's the person I'm going to be. No matter how subtle it is, it's there, and you want to give them who they really want. But it ain't me. — Judith Guest

People have a right to be the way they are. — Judith Guest

Crazy world or maybe it's just the view we have of it, looking through a crack in the door, never being able to see the whole room, the whole picture. — Judith Guest

I'm glad I'm successful at it, because it's allowed me to live very well financially, and give my kids a lot of things. It's enabled me to do stuff that I otherwise wouldn't be able to do. But it's not who I am. — Judith Guest

Ours was not a political household, when I was growing up. — Judith Guest

People use people according to their own needs. Or don't use them. When a primary need is one of safety. — Judith Guest

People that keep stiff upper lips find that it's hard to smile. — Judith Guest

I can write for a long time on one novel and not get tired. — Judith Guest

It is love, imperfect and unordered, that keeps them apart, even as it holds them somehow together ... — Judith Guest

Some people with awful cards can be successful because of how they deal with the tragedies they're handed, and that seems courageous to me. — Judith Guest

I think living the blessed life is the luck of the draw. — Judith Guest

I've never been one to tear the social fabric. — Judith Guest

Make peace with what is. — Judith Guest

It's true that every day away from work requires two more days to get back into it. — Judith Guest

Two separate, distinct personalities, not separate at all, but inextricably bound, soul and body and mind, to each other, how did we get so far apart so fast? — Judith Guest

Always good to have one crazy in the family ... It takes the pressure off everybody else. — Judith Guest

Life is not a series of pathetic, meaningles actions. Some of them are so far from pathetic, so far from meaningless as to be beyond reason, maybe beyond forgiveness. — Judith Guest

Don't put anyone out of your heart, there's room for all. — Judith Guest

My success is not who I am. — Judith Guest

He hangs on now, pressing his hand lightly against the wall, below the window, waiting for the familiar arrow of pain. Only there is none. An oddly pleasant swell of memory, a wave of warmth flooding over him, sliding back, slowly. It is a first — Judith Guest

Riding the train gives him too much time to think, he has decided. Too much thinking can ruin you. — Judith Guest

And what about tomorrow then? And all the tomorrows to come? Why can't we talk about it? Why can't we ever talk about it? — Judith Guest

And do not be paralyzed. It is better to move than to be unable to move, because you fear loss so much: loss of order, loss of security, loss of predictability. — Judith Guest

Make notes - I've lost more material than I've ever written. Contrary to popular opinion, it's not still up there in one's brain. It's in outer space and it ain't coming back. — Judith Guest

with grief? There is no dealing; he knows that much. There is simply the stubborn, mindless hanging on until it is over. Until you are through it. But something has happened in the process. The old definitions, the neat, knowing pigeonholes have disappeared. Or else they no longer apply. His eyes move again to the calendar. Wednesday, November fifth. Of course. Obvious. All the painful self-examination ; the unanswered questions. At least he knows what is wrong today. Today is Jordan's birthday. Today he would have been nineteen. — Judith Guest

With my friends, I don't feel pressure to be someone other than who I am. — Judith Guest

People who keep stiff upper lips find that it's damn hard to smile. — Judith Guest

Haven't lost your sense of humor after all but your sense of identity is what seems to have been misplaced. No. Wrong. You don't lose what you never had. — Judith Guest

Some people have an unrealistic expectation when it comes to getting published; the fact is most publishers will turn down your work which is why you need to be persistent. — Judith Guest

Jesus but people got weird when they lived alone. — Judith Guest

And if you ever do a survey, you'll find that people prefer illusion to reality, ten to one. Twenty, even. — Judith Guest