Deborah Tannen Quotes

I've actually never played with any of my brothers before. They've always been too old for me.

Daniel, my big brother, is eight years older. I'm lucky he didn't mind hanging out with his little sister and my younger brother.

There is a big age gap between my sisters Janice and Irma and myself so I didn't know them that well when I was younger although they have been very supportive in later life.

My mom had me at a young age, like 20, and she was the oldest child. All her brothers were seven and 10, so I was like a younger brother more so than the oldest child. I was the younger brother to all my uncles, so they were going through their childhood and their teenage years, and I was right there.

Big sisters and brothers... I am telling you, it never changes.

When my younger sisters were born, I was in high school and college. I was at my mom's all the time but never changed them or fed them.

I do have a sister. I have never written much about sisters before. I am very close to my sister, but, maybe, because we are very close, it never occurred to me to write about her.

I'm very close to my sisters.

Even my older brothers' early success 10 years ago didn't change me since there was such an age difference.

Parents always stay older than you, but sibling sort of become adults together, and that complicates that relationship, I think.

Sister is probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship.

I was the little sister that was annoying.

In some ways, siblings, and especially sisters, are more influential in your childhood than your parents.

When you're the younger brother, usually it's not that common that you're having these experiences that your older brother is in awe of.

I love having a sister. Its a great relationship that you dont understand unless you have one, I guess.

There is something about a guy who has a great relationship with his sisters.

I have twin sisters who are 12 years younger than me, so watching them grow up has been a big highlight.

When you are one of six, your brothers and sisters become your best mates.

Cooper and Peyton really competed a lot, they fought a lot. But Eli was so much younger. He's the little brother.

I think that your relationship is always changing with your siblings.

I was always bossing my sister around.

May and I are sisters. We'll always fight, but we'll always make up as well. That's what sisters do: we argue, we point out each other's frailties, mistakes, and bad judgment, we flash the insecurities we've had since childhood, and then we come back together. Until the next time.

Big brothers are the ones who are supposed to pull their punches. Little sisters—well, we should be able to hit as hard as we like, shouldn’t we?

I do find the sibling connection endlessly fascinating, as I do all family dynamics. I like how siblings seem to create their own parentless mini-civilization within a family, one that has its own laws, myths, language, humor, its own loyalties and treacheries.

I'm really connected to people, and my relationships with people are paramount, so I write about relationships, particularly strong female ones. In my family, there were six girls born in five years. We were best friends. And my parents raised all of us as first-class citizens.