Terry McMillan > Quotes

“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.”
― Terry McMillan , Disappearing Acts

“Folks want to glow, to leave their worries and dead skin behind.”
― Terry McMillan, Getting to Happy

“I want to push the fast-forward button until I get back to happy.”
― Terry McMillan, Getting to Happy

“Men cheat. They lie. They love porn. The don't respect you and don't care if they hurt you. It's the fucking breaks. Women divorce 'em 'cause we can't tame 'em or train 'em or control 'em like we do household pets. End of story.”
― Terry McMillan, Getting to Happy

“don't sabotage your own greatness by succumbing to failure!”
― Terry McMillan, A Day Late and a Dollar Short

“I was tired of chasing ghosts, hollow men who were outside my comfort zone, men who had nothing to give me except a rush. It was all I asked for, and all I ever got.”
― Terry McMillan, Getting to Happy

“happiness aint got no Ph.D. or no certain amount of zeroes behind it!”
― Terry McMillan, A Day Late and a Dollar Short

“What I do know is sometimes we love the wrong people and sometimes we marry them.”
― Terry McMillan, Getting to Happy

“life is like a jigsaw puzzle, you have to see the whole picture, then put it together piece by piece!”
― Terry McMillan, A Day Late and a Dollar Short

“Look, as my mama always said, 'One monkey don't stop no show.”
― Terry McMillan, Getting to Happy

“It goes without saying that your friends are usually the first to discuss your personal business behind your back.”
― Terry McMillan, Mama

“You've been killing me inside and I don't want to die like this.”
― Terry McMillan, Getting to Happy

“Back then I confused passions and orgasms with love. It look me years to realize the two weren't synonymous.”
― Terry McMillan, Getting to Happy

“I like to think of what happens to characters in good novels and stories as knots--things keep knotting up. And by the end of the story--readers see an unknotting of sorts. Not what you expect, not the easy answers you get on TV, not wash and wear philosophies, but a reproduction of believable, emotional experiences.”
― Terry McMillan

“I been saying it for years: church is full of sneaky men posing as honest souls, and they are perpetuators our here looking for women just like you, with giant holes in your hearts, and they can smell when you got a good job and when you lonely as hell.”
― Terry McMillan, Getting to Happy

“money does not guarantee happiness or peace of mind, it can take your mind off things, distract you, but it can't replace the generic stuff a person needs!”
― Terry McMillan, A Day Late and a Dollar Short

“I give everyone a chance to prove themselves before I dismiss them.”
― Terry McMillian

“I'm not trying to be a middle aged centerfold, I just want to look at myself naked and not be disgusted.”
― Terry McMillan, Getting to Happy

“We never thought some guy would deliberately fill our hearts with brown sugar and then pour hot water all over it.”
― Terry McMillan, Getting to Happy

“I hope you meet somebody and get married and then they fucking disappoint you and you have to go through a divorce, and then maybe you'll get it.”
― Terry McMillan, Getting to Happy

“We get divorce, we get conned, someone we love dies, or we can't find anybody to love us or somebody breaks our heart and we realize this fairy tale ain't fair. So we suffer.”
― Terry McMillan, Getting to Happy

“At least be a nice lesbian or you're going to give the rest a bad rap.”
― Terry McMillan, Getting to Happy

“Writing is the only place I can be myself and not feel judged.”
― Terry McMillan

“I don't care if he never becomes my boyfriend or my husband, i just want him to be legitimate.”
― Terry McMillan, Getting to Happy

“The best rush in the world is getting something at 80 percent off.”
― Terry McMillan, Getting to Happy

“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.”
― Terry McMillan

“ 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.”
― Terry McMillan

“It's amazing how we can make ourselves believe what we want to.”
― Terry McMillan, The Interruption of Everything

“If you jump to conclusions, you make terrible landings.”
― Terry McMillan, The Interruption of Everything

“I had been on a whole lot of folks' prayer lists and God had known for years my address was still 111 Unlucky-in-LOve-Avenue.”
― Terry McMillan, Getting to Happy