Emily Giffin Quotes

I don't look at my films or my old drawings much, so that was an interesting way to kind of reconnect with myself a bit.

In 'A Likely Story,' I wanted to recreate the events, the mood, and the imagery of my life as a teenager. I was thirty-seven when I wrote it.

I can no more reread my own books than I can watch old home movies or look at snapshots of myself as a child. I wind up sitting on the floor, paralyzed by grief and nostalgia.

I enjoy looking back on my life. I'm thinking seriously about starting to write about it.

When I look back at the record and listen to it, I can sort of see where I was at when I was making it - these brief little moments, different places I was at emotionally.

I have a fondness for writing about precocious, troubled teenagers, who are alienating, but kind of endearing. It's from remembering so clearly that time in my own life. I experienced myself as more dramatically troubled than I was, but I just remember how it felt.

I have all these revelations as I'm writing. Each song is like a chapter of my diary.

I look back at old photographs and videotapes, and I go, Who was I trying to be? Who was I doing this for?

That's a part of me going back to what I used to do.

I'm used to watching old movies of myself.

It could be seen as narcissistic to have your own museum, but for me, it's such a long time ago - I have perspective. That young man in the funny clothes - he's almost a stranger, so I can tell his story.

The other day in the garage, I found a book report from the seventh grade that I did about silent movie stars. It's funny to look at now, because it really foretold what my future would be.

I'm in a position to look back at my life, and I realized there were a number of experiences that needed to be documented.

I like to read my diary occasionally to remind myself what a miserable, alienated old sod I used to be.

Perhaps even these things, one day, will be pleasing to remember.

I feel like I experienced my 20s in all their glory and all their disastrousness.

I did keep detailed journals from about fifth grade on, and every so often as I was growing up, I would re-read them and reflect on the previous years of my life.

As years passed away I have formed the habit of looking back upon that former self as upon another person, the remembrance of whose emotions has been a solace in adversity and added zest to the enjoyment of prosperity.

For the first five years of music and first five years of acting, I don't remember it because I was running to where I was going. Finally I was like, 'Man, I missed everything.' So I just stopped, and I started looking around.

I went through a phase where I thought nostalgia was a bad thing.

Occasionally, I hanker for the time when I sold more records, but I don't sit and drool about it. When I do look at early footage of Talking Heads, I realise I was just a wreck.

You look back and you remember the good, the bad and the ugly.

Having a child takes you back to all those parts of your own childhood that you had hidden away.

No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place.

Every so often, if I'm in a melancholy mood, I'll sing 'Desperado' in my shows. I'll sit alone at the piano and play it as a solo. The song feels like an old friend - except now it's saying, 'You were a desperado once, but you worked your way out of it.'