Ann Brashares Quotes

I remember thinking, when I was in my early 30s, that this is the best age to be, and I still believe your 30s are a wonderful time.

I think it's natural as you get to the end of your twenties to start thinking about what you could have done differently - whether they went well or whether they went terribly.

If I was starting off now, I would probably have taken one or two different turnings along the way.

Time misspent in youth is sometimes all the freedom one ever has.

I don't have a seller's remorse about how I've lived.

At 20 and 30, we are like travelers in a foreign country, reading the guide book to learn how to behave, to learn when the post office is open. Trivia looms important; critical issues fade into a pastel background, unrecognized.

If I had my life to live over, I would want to be a man.

You write your life story by the choices you make. You never know if they have been a mistake. Those moments of decision are so difficult.

When I got to 40 or so... I had the sense when I looked back over my life I would actually see a mess of decisions, a few of which I had thought about, some of which I had sort of stumbled on, and many that I had no control over whatsoever.

For years I wanted to be older, and now I am.

I'm 48 years old, not a kid anymore by any definition, but here is a universal truth that every adult at some point will realize: We are all always 17 years old, waiting for our lives to begin.

Having a collection of regrets when you hit your 40s is part of the deal.

If I had to do it all over again, I'd probably live the same way.

I've reached the age of 32 with little wisdom, I'm afraid. It's tragic. I still have to turn to my mum and dad for every decision I make in life.

I think the last thing you want in life is to live with regret.

I used to love getting older.

When you're in your twenties, your brain hasn't even finished baking, and your hormones are giving you all kinds of direction of which ways to go.

The first 20 years had such a profound effect on me, I spent the next 20 dealing with them.

I have done a lot of crazy things in my life, and I do not regret anything.

I think everyone in their 30s looks back at their 20s and thinks, 'Oh God, if I'd just done this and this, and not done that.'

Youth is wasted on the young. And it doesn't even matter if you sit a young person down and tell them, 'You're so healthy, take advantage of it before it's gone!' They still can't hear it.

When I was little, the world was simple. But as a young adult, I'm learning that as we have to make choices - education, career, lifestyle - life gets more and more complicated.

I don't think anybody should regret the choices they made in their twenties.

I don't regret anything. I feel like I've made what I would call mistakes. I picked the wrong movie, or I didn't pursue a character, but everything you do is part of you and you get something from it.

In my humble opinion, the ages 22 to about 27 are the most critical years of your adult life. It's your time to gestate in the cocoon of becoming.