What Now? Quotes

“Just because things hadn't gone the way I had planned didn't necessarily mean they had gone wrong.”
― Ann Patchett, What Now?

“Coming back is the thing that enables you to see how all the dots in your life are connected, how one decision leads you another, how one twist of fate, good or bad, brings you to a door that later takes you to another door, which aided by several detours--long hallways and unforeseen stairwells--eventually puts you in the place you are now.”
― Ann Patchett, What Now?

“If you're trying to find out what's coming next, turn off everything you own that has an OFF switch and listen.”
― Ann Patchett, What Now?

“For the most part wisdom comes in chips rather than blocks. You have to be willing to gather them constantly, and from sources you never imagined to be probable. No one chip gives you the answer for everything. No one chip stays in the same place throughout your entire life. The secret is to keep adding voices, adding ideas, and moving things around as you put together your life. If you’re lucky, putting together your life is a process that will last through every single day you’re alive.”
― Ann Patchett, What Now?

“What now is not just a panic-stricken question tossed into a dark unknown. What now can also be our joy. It is a declaration of possibility, of promise, of chance. It acknowledges that our future is open, that we may well do more than anyone expected of us, that at every point in our development we are still striving to grow.”
― Ann Patchett, What Now?

“Sometimes not having any idea where we're going works out better than we could possibly have imagined.”
― Ann Patchett, What Now?

“Writing a novel and living a life are very much the same thing. The secret is finding the balance between going out to get what you want and being open to the thing that actually winds up coming your way.”
― Ann Patchett, What Now?

“Once you decide that strangers are more than just dangerous accidents waiting to happen, you will find yourself able to listen. How much sadness could be averted by taking the time to notice all the people we have come to ignore? Would we in fact be safer and not more at risk if we asked someone to voice his feelings rather than wait until he looked for other means of making himself heard?”
― Ann Patchett, What Now?

“people need to talk, and often a willingness to sit and listen is the greatest kindness one person can offer to another.”
― Ann Patchett, What Now?

“There are too many forces, as deep and invisible as tides, that keep us bouncing into places where we never thought we’d wind up. Sometimes the best we can hope for is to be graceful and brave in the face of all of the changes that will surely come. It also helps to have a sense of humor about your own fate, to not think that you alone are blessed when good fortune comes your way, or cursed when it passes you by.”
― Ann Patchett, What Now?

“Even if you have it all together you can’t know where you’re going to end up. There are too many forces, as deep and invisible as tides, that keep us bouncing into places where we never thought we’d wind up. Sometimes the best we can hope for is to be graceful and brave in the face of all of the changes that will surely come. It also helps to have a sense of humor about your own fate, to not think that you alone are blessed when good fortune comes your way, or cursed when it passes you by. It helps if you can realize that this part of life when you don’t know what’s coming next is often the part that people look back on with the greatest affection.”
― Ann Patchett, What Now?

“I learned the most from sticking with my dream even when all signs told me it was time to let go.”
― Ann Patchett, What Now?

“I had no interest in starting over again, but there are some people whom we grant the role of oracle in our lives and when they speak--rarely, gravely--we are well-advised to listen.”
― Ann Patchett, What Now?

“How much sadness could be averted by taking the time to notice all the people we have come to ignore? Would we in fact be safer and not more at risk if we asked someone to voice his feelings rather than wait until he looked for other means of making himself heard?”
― Ann Patchett, What Now?

“For the most part wisdom comes in chips rather than blocks. You have to be willing to gather them constantly , and from sources you never imagined to be probable.”
― Ann Patchett, What Now?

“It's up to you to choose a life that will keep expanding.”
― Ann Patchett, What Now?

“Being successful, and certainly being happy, comes from honing your skills in working with other people. For the most part we travel in groups - you're ahead of somebody for a while, then somebody's ahead of you, a lot of people are beside you all the way.”
― Ann Patchett, What Now?

“You learn to be helpful and you learn to ask for help.”
― Ann Patchett, What Now?

“As quickly as you think that everything is set, it all becomes unglued again.”
― Ann Patchett, What Now?

“If you're lucky, putting together your life is a process that will last through every single day you're alive.”
― Ann Patchett, What Now?

“By the time we reach adulthood, many have perfected the art of isolation, of being careful, of not listening in the name of safety. But the truth is that we need to hear other people, all people, especially in those moments when we don't know exactly where we're going ourselves.”
― Ann Patchett, What Now?

“The Hare Krishna didn't convert me (though honestly, I don't believe he had tried) but he did teach me something I should have known all along: people need to talk, and often a willingness to sit and listen is the greatest kindness one person can offer to another.”
― Ann Patchett, What Now?

“Sometimes the circumstances at hand force us to be braver than we actually are, and so we knock on doors and ask for assistance. Sometimes not having any idea where we're going works out better than we could possibly have imagined.”
― Ann Patchett, What Now?

“Writing is good for many things, but curing loneliness isn't one of them. From my room I heard the voices of the other freshmen who laughed and talked as if they had all been inseparable since Montessori. There was a river full of life rushing right past my door and I didn't have a single clue about how I might jump in.”
― Ann Patchett, What Now?

“Time has a funny way of collapsing when you go back to a place you once loved. This place hasn't changed so terribly much, and so by extension of logic I must not have changed much either.”
― Ann Patchett, What Now?