Terry McMillan Quotes

If you jump to conclusions, you make terrible landings.

Being a lifetime wife and mother has afforded me the luxury of having multiple careers: I've been a teacher. A chauffeur. A chef. An interior decorator. A landscape architect, as well as a gardener. I’ve been a painter. A personal shopper. An accountant and a banker. I’ve been a beautician. Santa Claus. The Tooth Fairy. A movie reviewer. A nurse. A psychologist. A negotiator. An I have a Ph. D in How to Pretend Like You Don’t Mind.

Writing is my shelter. I don't hide behind the words; I use them to dig inside my heart to find the truth.

Too many of us are hung up on what we don't have, can't have, or won't ever have. We spend too much energy being down, when we could use that same energy – if not less of it – doing, or at least trying to do, some of the things we really want to do.

I'm the only one who can stop me.. I'm the one who's been sitting at the stoplight all these years, waiting for the light to turn green.

Pay attention to the things that agitate you. It will tell you a lot about yourself.

It's amazing how we can make ourselves believe what we want to.

life is like a jigsaw puzzle, you have to see the whole picture, then put it together piece by piece!

Writing is the only place I can be myself and not feel judged.

As a writer, you get to bring attention to something without preaching. I don't believe in being didactic. So if you dramatize something, you automatically bring attention to it if people read it.

Write from your heart, and God will take care of the rest.

don't sabotage your own greatness by succumbing to failure!

Few writers are willing to admit writing is autobiographical.

People like to run their mouths.

I would like to think that as a result of not just my own experiences, but at least being empathetic and compassionate about other people's experiences and plights and tragedies, that I am affected by it and learn from it.

Back then I confused passions and orgasms with love. It look me years to realize the two weren't synonymous.

Folks want to glow, to leave their worries and dead skin behind.

My mama taught me that anything worth doing in life should be a little scary.

happiness aint got no Ph.D. or no certain amount of zeroes behind it!

Parents can ruin children, and sometimes that's a learned behavior. Sometimes you can't blame your parents for it, sometimes you can. I think to me, that's what the whole paradox is, is people that have children that don't even know how to raise them.

People need to be re - sometimes we need to reinvent ourselves and then get reacquainted with our better selves.

I just believe that young people need to be able to learn how to write in their own voice. Just like a musician, you pride yourself on having your own distinct sound.

I'm more interested in interpersonal relationships - between lovers families, siblings. That's why I write about how we treat each other.

Don't worry about how pretty (the story) sounds, how lilting it is, and the imagery, and the metaphor, all that. Most readers don't care. It's the people in your book that matter.

It's not that marriage itself is bad; it's the people we marry who give it a bad name.