Sela Ward

“If social cohesion is one of the good things about growing up in a small town, the downside is the unchallengeable power of cliques. That sort of thing is in the nature of the teenage beast, but in bigger towns and cities there are usually so many different social groups within a single school or locality that most kids can find others they feel comfortable with. Not so in a small town. If you don't conform, even at the cost of sacrificing your principles and self-respect, you will be an outcast. And if you have a sensitive nature, it will mark you for life.”
― Sela Ward

“Los Angeles, in short, is a place of great material and creative wealth, and boundless personal freedom—but also of a certain spiritual and civic poverty. Though there are many wonderful people here, on the whole it’s an anxious, self-involved place, where roots and tradition are largely forgotten, where neighbors don’t know each other and don’t particularly want to. It’s not that L.A. people are bad, but that there’s something about the way life is structured in this sunny paradise that leaves people feeling atomized and powerless to do anything about our common condition. I know it. I feel it myself, and had been feeling it for a long time before I realized how homesick I was. And I want better for my children.”
― Sela Ward, Homesick: A Memoir