Elizabeth Gilbert Quotes

I don't have children, and I don't want children.

I am so happy that I didn't have children. Well, you know, because I've had freedom.

Not having children isn't something I regret. I acknowledge that some things have been easier for me than they would have been for others.

I never planned on having children, that's never been a desire of mine.

Bizarrely, I've been called selfish for not having children. Surely it's more selfish to have a child when you don't really want a child?

I was that girl that was like, 'I don't want kids. I don't need kids.'

As I've gotten older, I've felt I have more authority on that subject. I think the conversation needs to be reframed. What I hate - a lot of conversations about choosing not to have children tend to be couched in these superficial terms, or kind of glib, "I'd rather have a Porsche" or "I forgot to have kids." No you didn't.

I think we are not yet well aware that, unfortunately, we have a short time to be moms. This is not to suggest that we should rush to have children or do it in a crazy way. I think that's the most important decision of a woman's life.

The urge that most people feel to have kids is the exact same as the urge that I have to not have kids. I do not want to raise a child.

People who choose not to have kids do so because they respect the job of parenting so much that they know not to take it on if they know it's not something that they're up for, and I don't know what to be a bigger tribute to parenting than that.

People always tell me I'm going to regret not having kids. But what if I have one and then I regret having it? Has anyone thought of that option?

I don't want children. Why should I let some strange little monster into my life to destroy what to me is a perfect set-up?

I never wanted children. If I'd been deeply in love with a man and he'd wanted children, it would have been difficult.

I am single and without children. I'm actually one of those people who's just never had a great desire to have kids.

Other people can have all the children they want. Some people ask for no-smoking sections. I ask for no children.

A woman who doesn't want to have kids is sort of a mystery to people. That's a question they're asked the minute they get married, it's a question they're asked constantly, 'Don't you want to have kids?' And I feel like that's completely unfair.

But I'd made up my mind early on in life that I never wanted to be a mother.

When I have children, it will be my choice, and I won't feel under any pressure.

I'm completely happy not having children. I mean, everybody does not have to live in the same way. And as somebody said, "Everybody with a womb doesn't have to have a child any more than everybody with vocal cords has to be an opera singer."

As I got older, I discovered that nothing within me cried out for a baby. My womb did not seem to have come equipped with that famously ticking clock. Unlike so many of my friends, I did not ache with longing whenever I saw an infant. (Though I did ache with longing, it is true, whenever I saw a good used-book shop)

It's not that I don't have kids for some personal reason outside of, I just haven't had kids. And I haven't met someone who wanted to, as far as I know. And perhaps I'm attracted to women who aren't ready to make that commitment just yet.

The most out-there thing I’m saying is, ‘Don’t have babies. Don’t get married and have kids. Have a larger life than that.

I decided then and there I was never going to have kids.

You're raised to think being a mother is an inevitable step in your development but you start to ask yourself questions, because not every woman does want to have children.

Fatherhood, both times for me, was a choice.