Anna Quindlen Quotes

Raising five boys is a handful, trust me.

When I confess a couple who have kids, a married couple, I ask, 'how many children do you have?' Some get worried and think the priest will ask why I don't have more. I would make a second question, 'Do you play with your children?' The majority say, 'but father, I have no time. I work all day.'

I'm a mother of three children, and we do make mistakes.

I've got two wonderful children - and two out of five isn't too bad.

Children can be your heartache. But that doesn't matter, you have to go on and have them . . . it works out.

Vegetables are something God invented to let women get even with their children.

As a mom I know that raising children is the hardest job there is.

Kids are wonderful, but I like mine barbecued.

Good mothers and good fathers and good families don't always have great children.

Wrinkles are hereditary. Parents get them from their children.

My sister has three kids so I've spent a lot of time around children and I've always really liked them and wanted my own. It's cool because you think all babies are the same but they aren't at all. They all have such different personalities. It's crazy.

I have to hold a meeting with the rising generation every evening, and that takes time. Henry can say, 'Twinkle, twinkle,' all himself, and Edward can repeat it after his father! Giants of genius! Paragons of erudition!

We've had bad luck with our kids - they've all grown up.

Clearly, society has a tremendous stake in insisting on a woman's natural fitness for the career of mother: the alternatives are all too expensive.

I was the oldest of five children, each about a year apart, and my mother, bless her heart, had her hands full.

I made a choice to stay home and raise five boys. Believe me, it was hard work.

My mom always said, 'Marry someone smarter than yourself, Katee, because No. 1, you're not that smart. And No. 2, then you'll have smart babies.'

I've seen my own kids go through their own ups and downs, and as a mother, you want to make it better.

We don't have nannies and all that, we look after our own kids. It's just what you do. If you want a big family that's just what you do, isn't it?

Sometimes when I look at my children I say to myself, "Lillian, you should have stayed a virgin.

When my husband tells our daughter, 'You get that trait from Mom,' she lights up with pride. We all know who he's talking about. And it's not me. I'm fine with this.

I have a wife who's a great mom.

I adore my family. I don't love their politics. I think they're wonderful parents. They were dreadful at parenting.

Having children is messy and easy to judge.

I have never had a nanny with any of my children.