Judith Viorst Quotes

My awkward stage extended well into high school.

The teenage years are ridiculously crucial and hard and, um, awkward.

I went through my awkward teenage years. I don't want to go back.

I was like this weird, edgy 10-year-old. I was figuring out who I was, obviously at the worst time. I had braces and bangs, and it was a nightmare.

Adolescence is like cactus.

I know parental embarrassment usually stops somewhere at fifteen, but he just kept on giving me good reasons.

I spent most of my adolescence feeling awkward but never once mentioned it.

We all know what it's like to go through growing pains and have awkward moments talking to someone you have a crush on.

I was so shy, I didn't have friends 'til 16 or something.

The teenage years are my least favorite, though my son is phenomenal. He does not get in trouble, and he's not a bad kid. But the fact that they think they know so much.

It truly is a little intimidating to go speak at a middle school. Sure, on one hand the kids are only around 13 years old, but on the other hand, merely going back there reactivates the dorky, miserable feeling of being that age again. It isn't easy. As soon as I arrived I could almost feel the braces on my teeth, the don't-look-at-me slouch of my shoulders, the feathered wings of my bangs.

The signs that presage growth, so similar, it seems to me, to those in early adolescence: discontent, restlessness, doubt, despair, longing, are interpreted falsely as signs of decay. In youth one does not as often misinterpret the signs; one accepts them, quite rightly, as growing pains. One takes them seriously, listens to them, follows where they lead. ... But in the middle age, because of the false assumption that it is a period of decline, one interprets these life-signs, paradoxically, as signs of approaching death.

On her daughter: And she's going through all these changes. You know, it's just crazy times.

When you're a teenager, a year can be crippling to maneuver through. Some things happen when you're like 13. All of a sudden you go from being this really confident, no-worry little kid to having all these weird insecurities for no reason.

The one thing I would like to get across about my whole feeling regarding high school is how I was when I was fifteen. Gawky. Always a hem hanging down, or strap loose, or a pimple on my chin. I never knew what to do with my hair. I was a mess. And I still carry that fifteen-year-old girl around now. A piece of me still believes I'm the girl nobody dances with.

I was approaching adolescence. For some reason, I guess my mother thought it would be less crazy out in the suburbs, which it wasn't. I just think adolescence is hard for anyone.

Negotiating the adolescent stage is neither quick nor easy.

I'm seventeen and I'm crazy. My uncle says the two always go together. When people ask your age, he said, always say seventeen and insane.

I remember hearing once that good girls don't get caught. I think that's sort of a lot of what my teen years were like.

When my family isn't alright, I get restless. It just doesn't seem right to me.

Whoa. If high school was suppose to be the best years of my life - at least so far - I was truly destined to have a sucky adulthood.

Youth must be the worst time in anybody's life. Everything's happening for the first time, which means that sorrow, then, lasts forever. Later, you can see that there was something very beautiful in it. That's because you ain't got to go through it no more.

L'adolescence est le seul temps o u' l'on ait appris quelque chose. Adolescence is the only time when we can learn something.

I'm really clumsy, so I trip and fall a lot. And every time I perform in New York my pants split onstage. That's happened four or five times. Every time, I pull on my mom's jeans as fast as I can, so there we are, standing backstage without our pants on. It's like a curse.