Mary Pipher

“Many girls have been socialized to be nice and to be concerned about the welfare of others.”

“Adolescence is a border between childhood and adulthood. Like all borders, it's teeming with energy and fraught with danger.”

“Reading is the royal road to intellectual eminence.”

“When a girl is in trouble, she is not in trouble by herself.”

“Girls are trained to be the keepers of the relational flame.”

“Hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up.”

“We are a culture that is in love with technology, but we have not thought through the consequences of this love affair.”

“Therapy is a good place to talk about what's worrying you.”

“Middle-aged women are the glue of the world.”

“In order to be a true revolutionary, you must be a lover of life.”

“America is a girl-destroying place.”

“Something is wrong with a culture that is this anxious.”

“Therapists need to have a long view of personal change. ...we need to be able to see that our clients will be in therapy for a while.”

“Writing is a way to clarify your thinking. It's a way to discover what you believe.”

“The great advantage of being a writer is that you can spy on people. You're there, listening to every word, but part of you is standing aside, recording everything. I think that's a great asset.”

“If you don't decide what your life is about, it defaults to what you spend your days doing.”

“When we know what we’re doing and why, we can be very resilient.”

“All human beings have a deep need to be known and to know others.”