Ann Brashares Quotes

Sam?" Rachel asked. "Do you know you have the saddest sad face ever?

People tell me to smile, I tell them the lack of emotion on my face doesn't mean I'm unhappy.

Joy and sadness come by turns.

There are lots of ways to communicate what we know, but few ways to communicate what we feel. Music is one way to communicate emotions.

When you're happy you enjoy the music, but when you're sad you understand the lyrics.

Anyone who has problems, or worries, anyone who laughs and cries, anyone who feels can write. It's only talking on paper... talking about the things that matter to us.

When I have to cry, I think about my love life. When I have to laugh, I think about my love life.

Where words fail, music speaks.

Beneath words and logic are emotional connections that largely direct how we use our words and logic.

Man is an unhappy animal and one that can talk. If he was not unhappy, he would have nothing to talk about. But if he had nothing to talk about, he would be unhappy.

I do believe that if you haven't learnt about sadness, you cannot appreciate happiness.

Unhappy is a nice word.

If I'm laughing, you know I'm either very happy or very sad. I cope with things with jokes.

Happy is the hearing man; unhappy the speaking man.

No one is drawn to writing about being happy or feelings of joy.

I write about heartbreak because I like writing about sad things, but I'm writing happy songs, too!

I'm not a sad person, upset the whole time, but I seem to be quite emotional.

I cry for a lot of good things that happen. I cry a lot, okay?

The whole beauty of music is that it goes where your words won't let you.

I'm really, really emotional.

If I was sad or afraid, I would sit in a corner and sing. If I was happy I would jump into the middle of the room and sing. It was how I expressed my emotions.

In silence and movement you can show the reflection of people.

Today, we celebrate happiness. Happiness is supposed to make us better workers and parents and partners; it's supposed to make us live longer. In the 16th century, sadness was thought to do most of those things. It's possible to read self-help books from that period which try to encourage sadness in readers by giving them lists of reasons to be disappointed. These self-help authors thought you could cultivate sadness as a skill, since being expert in it would make you more resilient when something bad did happen to you, as invariably it would. I think we could learn from this today. Feel sad today, and you might feel impatient, even a little ashamed. Feel sad in the 16th century, and you might feel a little bit smug.

I've laughed, and I've cried. Laughing has got it over crying.

If all we remember are good things, then happiness is our baseline, and there's no longer happiness. We need other feelings in order to appreciate others.