Dan Chaon Quotes

Even if you're happy with the life you've chosen, you're still curious about the other options.

I think the worst decision is usually no decision. If you make the wrong decision you can usually course-correct, but if you don't make it, you've already made it, and it's usually the bad one.

I think it's not a question of why, more a question of why not.

We are born into a vast room whose walls consist of a thousand doors of possibility. Each door is flung open to the world outside, and the room is filled with light and noise. We close some of the doors deliberately, sometimes with fear, sometimes with calm certainty. Others seem to close by themselves, some so quietly that we do not even notice.

There was another life that I might have had, but I am having this one.

I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations - one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it - you will regret both.

I think people have all faced decisions at times where you never know.

I guess I can go anywhere I want. If only I knew where to go.

You are doomed to make choices. This is life's greatest paradox.

You never know, when you commit to something, what else could have been. I'm so bored with that concept anymore. 'If only I didn't do this, I could have done this.' It was in front of me, they asked me to do it, and it seemed like good timing.

Living involves making bold choices. You can't always know how they're going to turn out, and you can always play that game of wondering what might have been if you had made another decision.

Nilda is watching the ground as though she's afraid she might fall. My heart is beating and I think, We could do anything. We could marry. We could drive off to the West Coast. We could start over. It's all possible but neither of us speaks for a long time and the moment closes and we're back in the world we've always known.

At this point in my life, I find myself obsessed with alternate paths I could've taken. I don't think about this with a sense of regret, but with a sense of wonder.

You need only choose ... then keep choosing as many times as necessary. That is all you need do. And it is certainly something you can do. Then as you continue to choose, everything is yours.

At the moment, the choice would be simple. I can survive just fine without either of them.

One should commit no stupidity twice, the variety of choice is, in the end, large enough.

Your life~the way it looks today is a result of your choices...What will you choose today for your tomorrows?

You always have choices no matter what.

You have to choose your future regrets.

I think it's a big mistake to decide too soon what you're going to do with your life.

I think that certainty is a closed door, It's the end of the conversation. Doubt is an open door.

As long as you are free, you are free to select and choose alternatives, provided that you are willing to accept the responsibility for being free. And after you've tried your alternatives, and they don't work as you would wish, don't blame me. Blame your choice. Try another alternative.

Fate isn’t one straight road…there are forks in it, many different routes to different ends. We have the free will to choose the path.

Never wanted to do anything else than acting ever in my life. But I'm 20, and there's so many possibilities. It would be insane for me to say, "Yeah this is definitely it, I'm never doing anything else." I'm 20 years old. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know anything about life. So I don't know. I may be a train conductor in 10 years. I have no idea. And that's the joy of this all.