Pam > Pam's Quotes

“I wanted her to see that the only life worth living is a life full of love; that loss is always part of the equation; that love and loss conjoined are the best opportunity we get to live fully, to be our strongest, our most compassionate, our most graceful selves. ”
― Pam Houston

“Life gives us what we need when we need it; receiving what it gives us is a whole other thing.”
― Pam Houston, Cowboys Are My Weakness

“Do you write novels?" I said.

"Novels, Lord no," she said. "I can't even stay married.”
― Pam Houston, Waltzing the Cat

“The Universe has a plan to make sure we don't ever stop learning, not only in our minds, but also in our hearts.”
― Pam Houston

“I always tell my students, about the biggest baddest things in life you must try to write small and light, save the big writing for the unexpected tiny thing that always makes or breaks a story.”
― Pam Houston

“The more important question, of course, was what the new Lucy would do, and even though I was pretty sure the old Lucy wouldn't be around much anymore, I was a little bit afraid the new Lucy hadn't yet shown up.”
― Pam Houston, Waltzing the Cat

“Writers, it is said, all carry a chip of ice in their hearts”
― Pam Houston, Sight Hound

“If a situation requires swearing to God it is — by definition — extreme.”
― Pam Houston, Waltzing the Cat

“There are three principles to remember if you are to teach a human being anything, and they are consistency, consistency, consistency.They are such fragile creatures to begin with, with poor eyes, poorer hearing, and no sense of smell left to speak of, it's no wonder they are made of fear. Some centuries ago they moved inside and with that move went nine-tenths of their intuition. It is almost unmerciful to make them live so long when they spend their lives in so much pain.”
― Pam Houston

“It's September 21st, a day I love for the balance it carries with it.”
― Pam Houston, Waltzing the Cat

“When he says "Skins or blankets?" it will take you a moment to realized that he's asking which you want to sleep under. And in your hesitation he'll decide that he wants to see your skin wrapped in the big black moose hide. He carried it, he'll say, soaking wet and heavier than a dead man, across the tundra for two—was it hours or days or weeks? But the payoff, now, will be to see it fall across one of your white breasts. It's December, and your skin is never really warm, so you will pull the bulk of it around you and pose for him, pose for his camera, without having to narrate this moose's death.”
― Pam Houston, Cowboys Are My Weakness

“There was something about the prairie for me—it wasn’t where I had come from, but when I moved there it just took me in and I knew I couldn’t ever stop living under that big sky. ”
― Pam Houston

“For the people of my country," Renato said, "water is everything: love, life, religion... even God."

"It is like that for me too," I said. "In English we call that a metaphor."

"Of course," said Renato, "and water is the most abundant metaphor on earth.”
― Pam Houston, Waltzing the Cat