Quotes to Live by (and Write by Too)

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

Kierkegaard

"The thing about the past is that one can't help what zip code one was born in, what country or family you're descended from.  All you can do is learn the lessons of those who came before you, their stories, their mistakes, and their successes."

Anderson Cooper

“If you don’t know the trees you may be lost in the forest, but if you don’t know the stories you may be lost in life.”

Siberian Elder

“One regret I have: I didn’t get as much as the family history as I could have for the kids.”

Robert De Niro

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”

Maya Angelou

“You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.”

Anne Lamott

“One of my biggest regrets is that I didn't get my father's life story before he died."

Michelle Pfeiffer

“Memories of our lives, of our works, and our deeds will continue in others.”

Rosa Parks

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

William Faulkner

“Life itself is the most wonderful fairytale of all.”

Hans Christian Andersen

“To be a person is to have a story to tell.”

Isak Dinesen

"When an elder dies, it is as if an entire library has burned to the ground"

African saying