Gillian Flynn quotes: popular soundbites from the writer.
“I find, the older I get, the more surprised I am about how hesitant people are to say what they really want, what they really dream about, what really drives them. It’s as if sometimes we’re sort of embarrassed, as we get older, to be transparent about that. But you save so much time if you’re transparent about what you want.”
“To spend a life in dreams, that sounded too lovely.”
“Don’t be discouraged.”
“Everyone has a moment where life goes off the rails.”
“Worries find you easily enough without inviting them.”
“If ifs and buts were candies and nuts we’d all have a very Merry Christmas.”
“It’s important to tell stories, and it’s a worthwhile thing to do.”
“Things might not be great, but things would be okay.”
“Instead of asking yourself what happened, just accept that it happened. Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.”
“Nothing to it but to do it.”
“It requires discipline.”
“I think there is something very relatable in the idea that you hit a certain age, later in your life, where you realize you have to pick up the rug and see what’s underneath it and deal with stuff.”
“You think: ‘Oh, here is the rest of my life. It’s finally arrived.'”
“People who get caught get caught because they don’t have patience; they refuse to plan.”
“Always have a backup plan to the backup plan.”
“I am a great believer in jobs for teens. They teach important life lessons, build character, and inflict just the right amount of humiliation necessary for future success in the working world.”
“My mother had always told her kids: ‘If you’re about to do something, and you want to know if it’s a bad idea, imagine seeing it printed in the paper for all the world to see.'”
“Conflicted means you can live a shallow life without copping to be a shallow person.”
“I was not raised by big-dreamer parents who pictured their child as a future president. I was raised by pragmatic parents who pictured their child as a future office worker of some sort, making a living of some sort.”
“Writing has certainly helped me explore about 20,000 versions of my authentic self. I suppose that’s what most writers discover if they write long enough: there are a lot of selves roaming around in there. I was always someone who wanted to write. I was a real shy, bookworm-ish kid, and I think my earliest stuff was fairly dark.”
“I was very lucky to grow up in a household that really valued storytelling and didn’t find it frivolous. I grew up in a house full of books.”
“I think it’s fair to say I am a writer. I’m using this journal to get better: to hone my skills, to collect details and observations. To ‘show don’t tell’ and all that other writerly crap.”
“I assumed that Gone Girl would do incrementally better than Dark Places, and that would be great. So the fact that it did more than that was kind of an incredibly pleasant surprise.”
“I could not have written a novel if I hadn’t been a journalist first, because it taught me that there’s no muse that’s going to come down and bestow upon you the mood to write. You just have to do it. I’m definitely not precious.”
“I’ve always read in order to figure out people more, and that includes bad people and good people. I want books to give me insight into the way people’s brains work and hearts work, and that’s what engages me.”
“Give me a man with a little fight in him, a man who calls me on my bullsh*t. (But who also kind of likes my bullsh*t.)”
“Love should require both partners to be their very best at all times.”
“Sometimes if you let people do things to you, you’re really doing it to them.”
“A lot of people lacked that gift: knowing when to f*ck off.”
“Get all that bad stuff out, sweetheart. Don’t stop till it’s all out.”
“My brain goes very easily into the darkness. It always has. There are people who like to see what’s under the rock and people who don’t, and for some reason I’ve always been one of those to say, ‘Hey, let’s flip over that rock.’ Dark sides are important. They should be nurtured like nasty black orchids.”
“Sometimes you need to get lost for a little.”
“I don’t think I’m naturally a good person. I think some people have an innate goodness to them, and I am sort of proud of the fact that I kind of keep myself in check, probably because I have awesome parents.”
“I feel like I need to give people a note with the book that says, ‘I’m okay, no worries!'”
“I mostly go under the radar, which is fantastic because I would not be a good famous person.”
“The skill set that lets you be alone in your pajamas for two years writing a book is not the same skill set that lets you go on television shows like The View or Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.”
“You drink a little too much and try a little too hard. And you go home to a cold bed and think, ‘That was fine.’ And your life is a long line of ‘fine.'”
“People want passion. People want a sense of purpose.”
“The face you give the world tells the world how to treat you.”
“Friends see most of each other’s flaws. Spouses see every awful last bit.”
“Best friends are the people who know us best.”
“It’s a nice day’s work when you make a lot of people smile.”
“You are better than any storybook, you are better than anything anyone could make up.”
“I know sometimes you think you are moving through this world alone, unseen, unnoticed. But don’t believe that for a second. Follow your beloved river, up up up!”
“Smile, it can’t be that bad!”
“Just got to keep on keeping on.”
