Sue Monk Kidd Quotes

Guided by my heritage of a love of beauty and a respect for strength - in search of my mother's garden, I found my own.

Analysis gave me great freedom of emotions and fantastic confidence. I felt I had served my time as a puppet.

What's the message in Metallica? There is no message, but if there was a message, it really should be look within yourself, don't listen to me, don't listen to James, don't listen to anybody, look within yourself for the answers.

I've changed in my sympathies since I've become a mother myself. In high school I went through a period where I was close with my mom and had to break with her in order to find myself and come back. Since that was my experience, that's often what happens in my books.

Sometimes people look to others for answers they can find within themselves. I don't really want the responsibility of being the guy they look to.

I can't point to a single person or incident that changed my life, but the recognition that there is a certain world order, has been consequential. It has empowered me to do things my way. I found an inner truth by which I abide.

The only solutions that are ever worth anything are the solutions that people find themselves.

It's a life's journey of finding ourselves, finding our power, and living for yourself, not for everyone else.

For me, a happy ending is not everything works out just right and there is a big bow, it's more coming to a place where a person has a clear vision of his or her own life in a way that enables them to kind of throw down their crutches and walk.

I know that I have raised my sons to be big, strong, independent men who love God, themselves and care for others. I have to learn to let them have space and learn without me.

There are no makeovers in my books. The ugly duckling does not become a beautiful swan. She becomes a confident duck able to take charge of her own life and problems.

My real guru are my experiences in life - the realisation that you are alone in this world came very early to me.

In silence - and in self-defense - I figured things out in my own little way.

You have to find it. No one else can find it for you.

Women must learn to find self-worth within themselves, not through others. It is important to carve out a place just for you.

The best thing we can do is develop our own.

A woman finds the natural lay of the land almost unconsciously; and not feeling it incumbent on her to be guide and philosopher to any successor, she takes little pains to mark the route by which she is making her ascent.

Doubt everything. Find your own light.

Down to Gehenna or up to the Throne, / He travels the fastest who travels alone.

I think it's really important for every mother to find their own way.

Once you trust in yourself, you automatically want to go outside of yourself.

I tell my son Corey that the greatest teacher is the teacher who says, 'Don't follow me; follow yourself. Because within you there is that kingdom, that life, that force.'

The only knowledge which satisfies us is one which is subject to no external standards but springs from the inner life of the personality.

More than anything, I think my connection to the sea has really helped me develop my independence and a sense of the importance and value of my own vision.

It took time for me to step away and become an independent thinker so that wherever I am in the world, I understand who I am and that nothing's impossible.