Gail Sheehy

Creativity could be described as letting go of certainties.

I found that female pathfinders generally integrate characteristics commonly associated with being women - like the capacity to be intimate - with 'male' ones like ambition and courage.

I do think taking the 20s to take the most chances you can is important, because you're not going to hurt anyone else during that time. And if you do have a partner, you need a couple years to rehearse that relationship.

We really only have two choices. Play it safe, or take a chance. For me, pulling back because of fear has always made me feel worse.

When men reach their sixties and retire, they go to pieces. Women go right on cooking.

The perceptions of middle age have their own luminosity.

Being a pathfinder is to be willing to risk failure and still go on.

In my memoir, I admit that I've been as fearful of success as of failure. In fact, when 'Passages' was published, I so dreaded bad reviews that I ran away to Italy with a girlfriend and our children to hide out.

In rough times, pathfinders rely on work, friends, humor and prayer. They develop a support network.

The delights of self-discovery are always available.

Would that there were an award for people who come to understand the concept of enough. Good enough. Successful enough. Thin enough. Rich enough. Socially responsible enough. When you have self-respect you have enough.

Transformation also means looking for ways to stop pushing yourself so hard professionally or inviting so much stress.

The source of continuing aliveness was to find your passion and pursue it with whole heart and single mind.

When men reach their sixties and retire they go to pieces. Women just go right on cooking.

To hear how special and wonderful we are is endlessly enthralling.

Changes are not predictable but to deny them is to be an accomplice to one's own unnecessary vegetation.

Growth demands a temporary surrender of security.

Changes are not only possible and predictable but to deny them is to be an accomplice to one's own unnecessary vegetation.