Quotes from Happy Accidents

Jane Lynch ·  304 pages

Rating: (12K votes)


“...at the restaurant of her choice, she taught me the lesson of “proximity.” “You don’t have to throw people away,” she said. “You just have to decide how close you want them. Not every person in your life needs to be your best friend: some can be friends or just friendly acquaintances.”
― Jane Lynch, quote from Happy Accidents


“I spent so much of my younger life drinking, and being drunk makes learning to be a grown-up kind of hard.”
― Jane Lynch, quote from Happy Accidents


“All the characters ever written are already inside you. It's just a matter of accessing them and bringing them forward. And having no fear of the dark side.”
― Jane Lynch, quote from Happy Accidents


“The meeting started, and I could barely listen for my self-mortification. I wanted the hour to end so I could ask her what it was I had done. And then, all of a sudden, it hit me - boing! This had NOTHING to do with me. I felt a wave of relief, an internal shift like I had just had a chiropractic adjustment. I realized that I had made something that had nothing to do with me into something that was all about me.

I saw that I had been doing this all my life. When I was a kid, my mom was easily annoyed, and I always figured it was me bugging her. After growing up like that, I was forever making myself the cause of other people's pain. It was self-centered and rendered me incapable of compassion for others, because I'm no good to anybody else when it's all about me. And frankly, most things have nothing to do with me. It was very adolescent, really. I got it, suddenly and profoundly.”
― Jane Lynch, quote from Happy Accidents


“...I started getting back what I was putting in. I began to see how important good relationships are in this business. I've always been naturally thorough and well prepared, and by my mid-thirties I had worked out the worst kinks in my personality. I might have even become someone who was nice to have around.”
― Jane Lynch, quote from Happy Accidents



“restaurant of her choice, she taught me the lesson of “proximity.” “You don’t have to throw people away,” she said. “You just have to decide how close you want them. Not every person in your life needs to be your best friend: some can be friends or just friendly acquaintances.”
― Jane Lynch, quote from Happy Accidents


“I don’t know why, but I was born with an extra helping of angst.”
― Jane Lynch, quote from Happy Accidents


About the author

Jane Lynch
Born place: in Dolton, Illinois, The United States
Born date July 14, 1960
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Fear and shame are the backbone of my self-control. They are my source of inspiration, my insurance against becoming entirely unacceptable. They help me do the right thing. And I am terrified of what I would be without them. Because I suspect that, left to my own devices, I would completely lose control of my life. I'm still hoping that perhaps someday I'll learn how to use willpower like a real person, but until that very unlikely day, I will confidently battle toward adequacy, wielding my crude skill set of fear and shame.”
― Allie Brosh, quote from Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened


“Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.”
― Anne Lamott, quote from Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith


“The happiness of being envied is glamour.
Being envied is a solitary form of reassurance. It depends precisely upon not sharing your experience with those who envy you. You are observed with interest but you do not observe with interest - if you do, you will become less enviable. In this respect the envied are like bureaucrats; the more impersonal they are, the greater the illusion (for themselves and for others) of their power. The power of the glamorous resides in their supposed happiness: the power of the bureaucrat in his supposed authority.”
― John Berger, quote from Ways of Seeing


“Broad is the gate that leads to destruction, but narrow the way that leads to salvation. . . .”
― Greg Iles, quote from The Quiet Game


“Baby?” he called and he felt her eyes on him.
“Yeah?” she replied, her sweet voice soft, another tone he was getting used to and this was because the last couple of days it had started to come at him often.
“Do me a favor?”
“Sure.”
“In a second, I’m gonna pull over, get out my gun and give it to you. When I do, shoot me with it.”
“What?” she whispered.
“I’m facin’ another hour and a half of your music. I’d rather be dead.”
Silence then, “Shut up.”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck


Interesting books

The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl
(6.2K)
The Astonishing Adve...
by Barry Lyga
The Candy Bombers: The Untold Story of the Berlin Airlift and America's Finest Hour
(1.1K)
Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos
(14.5K)
Parallel Worlds: A J...
by Michio Kaku
Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman
(16.7K)
Genius: The Life and...
by James Gleick
Doctor Who: The Silent Stars Go By
(2.1K)
Doctor Who: The Sile...
by Dan Abnett
Sinner
(6.1K)
Sinner
by Ted Dekker

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.