Essays on Anna Quindlen

July 8, 1953, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Columnist, Novelist

Gerald Krovatin (m. 1978)

Maria Krovatin, Christopher Krovatin, Quindlen Krovatin

• "The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself."
• "I would be the most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves."
• "If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all."

July 8, 1952 (age 69)

Anna Quindlen is an American columnist and novelist who in 1992 became the third woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for commentary.

Anna Quindlen was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Quindlen began her newspaper career in 1974 as a part-time reporter for the New York Post when she was still a student at Barnard College, New York City. Between 1977 and 1994 she held several posts at The New York Times and her popularity continued to grow. Anna Quindlen left journalism in 1995 to become a full-time novelist.

Object Lessons (1991), One True Thing (1994), Black and Blue (1998), Blessings (2002), Rise and Shine (2006), Still Life with Breadcrumbs (2014), Miller’s Valley (2016), Alternate Side (2018)

In 1994 Quindlen published her semi-autobiographical novel One True Thing. The book focuses on the relationship between a young woman and her mother, who is dying from cancer. Quindlen's own mother, Prudence Quindlen, died in 1972 while in her 40s from ovarian cancer. In 1998, a film of the same name was released. The movie starred Meryl Streep and Renée Zellweger as Kate and Ellen Gulden, fictionalized versions of Prudence and Anna Quindlen. Streep was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.

Quindlen was noted for seeming to speak directly to each of her readers about the issues that concerned them, and she brought an insightful, personal view to political, especially gender-specific, issues.

“The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.”
“If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all.”
“Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.”