Susan Cheever Quotes

• There is no other closeness in human life like the closeness between a mother and her baby - chronologically, physically, and spiritually they are just a few heartbeats away from being the same person.

  Susan Cheever

  Mother, Baby, Heartbeat

  Susan Cheever (1995). “A Woman's Life: The Story of an Ordinary American and Her Extraordinary Generation”, Quill

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• You mustn’t be so open-minded that your brains fall out.

  Susan Cheever

  Fall, Brain, Open Minded

  Susan Cheever (2014). “E. E. Cummings: A Life”, p.11, Vintage

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• Addiction isnt about substance - you arent addicted to the substance, you are addicted to the alteration of mood that the substance brings.

  Susan Cheever

  Addiction, Substance, Mood

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• Personal experience is the lightning of the soul; it transforms the heart in ways that leave the brain behind.

  Susan Cheever

  Heart, Soul, Brain

  Susan Cheever (2007). “American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau: Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Work”, p.133, Simon and Schuster

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• I think 12-step programs really work, rehab really works, certain types of therapies and talking to other addicts really work. There are a lot of things that work - that isn't the problem. The problem is getting the addicts to say they're addicts. The problem is admitting it.

  Susan Cheever

  Thinking, Talking, Rehab

  Source: www.marieclaire.com

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• Writers often write their best when they are feeling their worst

  Susan Cheever

  Writing, Feelings, Worst

  Susan Cheever (2011). “Louisa May Alcott: A Personal Biography”, p.181, Simon and Schuster

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• Womens currency is their looks. Like it or not, the most powerful woman is an 18-year-old woman.

  Susan Cheever

  Powerful, Years, Looks

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• If a woman is surrounded by lovers or if a woman has a lot of guys asking her out, that's considered wonderful. As a woman who's slept with a lot of men, I've always been complimented on my ability to attract men.

  Susan Cheever

  Men, Guy, Asking

  Source: www.marieclaire.com

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• There is no such thing as expecting too much.

  Susan Cheever

  Optimistic, Too Much, Expecting

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• Dogs are great teachers. They are at home in the world. They live in the moment, and they force us to stay there with them. Dogs love us unconditionally, not for our bodies or bank accounts.

  Susan Cheever

  Dog, Teacher, Home

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• All writers have strengths and weaknesses. I am terrified of being boring, so I write short, compressed stories that sometimes don't give a reader time to think about what they have read. I struggle to slow down.

  Susan Cheever

  Struggle, Writing, Thinking

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• Death is terrifying because it is so ordinary. It happens all the time.

  Susan Cheever

  Death, Ordinary, Happens

  Susan Cheever (2015). “Home Before Dark”, p.233, Simon and Schuster

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• Guilt is petty; I am above guilt.

  Susan Cheever

  Guilt, Petty

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• Love is a great wrecker of peace of mind.

  Susan Cheever

  Inspirational, Love Is, Mind

  Susan Cheever (2001). “As Good As I Could Be: A Memoir About Raising Wonderful Children in an Imperfect World”, p.176, Simon and Schuster

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• I believe that the memoir is the novel of the 21st century; it’s an amazing form that we haven’t even begun to tap…we’re just getting started figuring out what the rules are.

  Susan Cheever

  Believe, Century, Form

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• I don't really think of writing as a career. It's something that happened to me. By working harder than I knew it was possible to work, I have become passable at it.

  Susan Cheever

  Writing, Thinking

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• Pregnancy is difficult for women but it is even more difficult for men.

  Susan Cheever

  Pregnancy, Men, Difficult

  Susan Cheever (1995). “A Woman's Life: The Story of an Ordinary American and Her Extraordinary Generation”, Quill

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• Falling in love as we know it is an addictive experience.

  Susan Cheever

  Falling In Love, Fall, Knows

  Susan Cheever (2009). “Desire: Where Sex Meets Addiction”, p.43, Simon and Schuster

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• Whenever there was a crisis, I found a man to help me take the edge off the feelings of helplessness and pain.

  Susan Cheever

  Pain, Men, Feelings

  Susan Cheever (2009). “Desire: Where Sex Meets Addiction”, p.128, Simon and Schuster

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• When Tolstoy wrote that all happy families are alike, what he meant was that there are no happy families.

  Susan Cheever

  Happy Family

  Treetops pt. 2, ch. 11 (1991)

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• The actual American childhood is less Norman Rockwell and Walt Disney than Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe.

  Susan Cheever

  Childhood, Hawthorne, Allan Poe

  Susan Cheever (1995). “A Woman's Life: The Story of an Ordinary American and Her Extraordinary Generation”, Quill

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• Our [western] culture embraces sex addiction. If I drink too much or rack up credit-card debt or lose the rent in Vegas, that's bad. But if I have many lovers, that's good.

  Susan Cheever

  Sex, Vegas, Addiction

  Source: www.marieclaire.com

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• Obsession is so extreme and so hard to imagine with the rational mind that it has a science-fiction-like quality to it-it's almost as if the obsessed one has been taken over by a replica, a pod, a facsimile of the rational person.

  Susan Cheever

  Taken, Mind, Quality

  Susan Cheever (2009). “Desire: Where Sex Meets Addiction”, p.56, Simon and Schuster

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• There is some consensus: There's obsession, there's never satiety, and there's always remorse. For me, the big thing is that you're always breaking a promise - for example, you promise yourself you're just going to have coffee with a man, then before you know it, you're in bed together.

  Susan Cheever

  Coffee, Men, Promise

  Source: www.marieclaire.com

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• A fierce literary woman with a penchant for married men, Margaret Fuller was ultimately torn between motherhood and her final career as a political reporter.

  Susan Cheever

  Motherhood, Men, Careers

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