Julia Claiborne Johnson Quotes & Sayings

I go to sleep exhausted," she said. "I wake up tired." Yes. — Julia Claiborne Johnson

Frank will be okay, Alice," Mr. Vargas said. "He's an odd duck, but brilliant children often are. I make myself out to be," he said. "I'm worried, yes. But I'd worry more if she didn't have Frank. She's all he got, and she knows it. — Julia Claiborne Johnson

My mother always said that the best way to connect with anybody who was a mother was to find a way to compliment her child. — Julia Claiborne Johnson

Youth isn't wasted on the young, literature is. — Julia Claiborne Johnson

If you think you'll always let people down, that's all you'll ever do, I said. — Julia Claiborne Johnson

With children in the house, you're on call around the clock whether you like it or not. You don't get the luxury of enough sleep when that was what you needed most to keep yourself from going over the edge. — Julia Claiborne Johnson

From that high up, language or the lack of it didn't matter much. The swirling currents of people were way better than anything on TV. Even on cable. Except, possibly, the Armenian Channel. — Julia Claiborne Johnson

Sometimes just explaining your predicament--to a bartender, a priest, the old woman in a shift and flip-flops cleaning the lint traps in the Laundromat dryers--is all it takes to see a way out of it. — Julia Claiborne Johnson

Later, Xander said, "It's not about you, you know. What Mimi hates is how her life has turned out. It isn't how she thought it would be back when she was your age and on the top of the world. — Julia Claiborne Johnson

It had been nice to be so sure of myself. Now that I didn't have that compass anymore, I'd never felt so lost. I dropped onto the red love seat and hated myself for a good long time. Here are some adjectives I aimed at myself: Self-righteous. Judgmental. Perfidious. Smug. The kind of person who's convinced the world would be a better place if everybody else would just shut up and listen. I — Julia Claiborne Johnson

but I've found the best way to handle anyone difficult - rich worrywart moms, the famished Manhattan vegan ordering a late lunch - is to exude the bland calm of the heavily medicated and go about my business. — Julia Claiborne Johnson

Energy spent on worrying about a future you can't control is energy wasted. It doesn't do anybody one bit of good. I — Julia Claiborne Johnson

They're probably mad because you're smart and make good grades. Kids are stupid like that. The teachers love you, though, right?"
"I'll tell you what my mom says teachers don't love," said Frank. "Being corrected. — Julia Claiborne Johnson