Jeannette Walls
Jeannette Walls
Jeannette Wallsis an American writer and journalist widely known as former gossip columnist for MSNBC.com — and author of The Glass Castle, a memoir of the nomadic family life of her childhood, which stayed on the New York Times Best Seller list for 100 weeks...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMemoirist
Date of Birth21 April 1960
CityPhoenix, AZ
CountryUnited States of America
answer asked control people truth
I was in control of what people thought of me, but I had no control over what they thought of my mother. When I asked my mother, 'How do I tell people about you?' her answer was, 'Tell the truth'. But of course, the truth is never simple.
perfect people secret
I wanted to let the world know that no one had a perfect life, that even the people who seemed to have it all had their secrets.
hands play different
God deals us all different hands. How we play 'em is up to us.
forever body splits
Sometimes something catastrophic can occur in a split second that changes a person's life forever; other times one minor incident can lead to another and then another and another, eventually setting off just as big a change in a body's life.
mom dog hate
I hate Erma," I told Mom... "You have to show compassion for her..." She added that you should never hate anyone, even your worst enemies. "Everyone has something good about them," she said. "You have to find the redeeming quality and love the person for that." "Oh yeah?" I said. "How about Hitler? What was his redeeming quality?" "Hitler loved dogs," Mom said without hesitation.
dad space purpose
Dad was a philosopher and had what he called his Theory of Purpose, which held that everything in life had a purpose, and unless it achieved that purpose, it was just taking up space on the planet and wasting everybody's time.
adventure hands world
You can't prepare for everything life's going to throw at you. And you can't avoid danger. It's there. The world is a dangerous place, and if you sit around wringing your hands about it, you'll out on all the adventure.
teacher teaching angel
Teaching is a calling too. And I've always thought that teachers in their way are holy - angels leading their flocks out of the darkness.
fall dangerous happened
The dangerous falls were the ones that happened so fast you didn't have time to react
suicide pain suicidal
When people kill themselves, they think they're ending the pain, but all they're doing is passing it on to those they leave behind.
fire toes world
I lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire. It was the sort of knowledge that kept you on your toes.
thinking rushing feelings
I could see why Archimedes got all excited. There was nothing finer than the feeling that came rushing through you when it clicked and you suddenly understood something that had puzzled you. It made you think it just might be possible to get a handle on this old world after all.
girl mom age
Since Mom wasn't exactly the most useful person in the world, one lesson I learned at an early age was how to get things done, and this was a source of both amazement and concern for Mom, who considered my behavior unladylike but also counted on me. "I never knew a girl to have such gumption," she'd say. "But I'm not too sure it's a good thing.
mean might like-you
I feel like I failed," I said. "Don't beat yourself up," Jim said. "She might not have turned out like you planned, but that don't mean she turned out wrong.