“ You can be two things if you're a woman, Dolores. Betty Crocker or a floozy. Just remember your place - even if it kills you. Wally Lamb
“ The seeker embarks on a journey to find what he wants and discovers, along the way, what he needs. Wally Lamb
“ I didn't respond to him. Couldn't speak at all. Couldn't look at his self-mutilation--not even the clean, bandaged version of it. Instead, I looked at my own rough, stained house painter's hand. They… Wally Lamb
“ We are like water, aren’t we? We can be fluid, flexible when we have to be. But strong and destructive, too.” And something else, I think to myself. Like water, we mostly follow the path of least resi… Wally Lamb
“ What if I don’t like adventure?Then cultivate a taste for it. Take a chance. That’s how you grow. Wally Lamb
“ Too bad I didn't know you back then, I would have come and rescued you." Like he was Prince Charming or something. Which he is, in a way, because he rescued me from the simple, uncomplicated life I th… Wally Lamb
“ [Writing about themselves] gives them wings, so that they can rise above the confounding maze of their lives and, from that perspective, begin to see the patterns and dead ends of their pasts, and a w… Wally Lamb
“ As my father talked, tears dripped down the side of his face like candle wax. The sight shocked me; until that moment, I had assumed men were as incapable of crying as they were of having babies. Wally Lamb
“ You know what 'Dolores' means? It's Latin, means sadness. Our Lady of Sorrow. Why are you so sad? Wally Lamb
“ So maybe that’s what love means. Having the capacity to forgive the one who wronged you, no matter how deep the hurt was. Wally Lamb
“ If I could just write it down in a piece of paper, then maybe she could get a decent night's sleep, eat a little of her dinner. Maybe she could have a minute's worth of peace. Wally Lamb
“ That time we separated was my idea. I thought, well, I'm fifty years old and there might be someone else out there. People waste their happiness - that's what makes me sad. Everyone's so scared to be… Wally Lamb
“ Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of life's longing for itself. Wally Lamb
“ Her shut-eyed smile transformed itself into something else: the smile of someone brave and knowing, someone whose pain had made her wise. Wally Lamb
“ I needed her to stop. Needed not to hear the pain in her voice--to see the way she was twisting the pocketbook strap. If she kept talking, she might break down and tell me everything. Wally Lamb
“ Maybe that's what love is. Having someone who guides you through different experiences, coaxes you to try news things but still makes you feel safe. Wally Lamb
“ I started writing because of a terrible feeling of powerlessness," the novelist Anita Brookner has said. The National Book Award winner Alice McDermott noted that the most difficult thing about becomi… Wally Lamb
