“We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made…”— Anaïs Nin, amazon.com
“I am convinced that most people do not grow up... We marry and dare to have children and call that growing up. I think what we do is mostly grow old. We carry accumulation of years in our bodies, and on our faces, but generally our real selves, the children inside, are innocent and shy as magnolias.”— Maya Angelou, amazon.com
“Your parents are people too with issues and triggers. They are getting used to having an adult child just as you are getting used to being an adult.”— Christine Hassler, christinehassler.com
“We’ve all experienced the frustration of our 20s going nothing as planned, so why do we still feel like we’re the only ones who are struggling? This lie that we’re all alone in our struggle is a powerful magnifier of depression, anxiety, and confusion in our 20s. It’s vital we blow this ugly lie up.…”— Paul Angone, amazon.com
“No one tells you that it hurts this much to be a grown-up. That people are so complicated they end up hurting each other to self preserve.”— Tarryn Fisher, amazon.com
“Monica: 'Shut up, the camera adds ten pounds.' Chandler: 'Uh, so how many cameras are actually on you?'”— Chandler Bing, Monica Geller, amazon.com
“What’s that line from T.S. Eliot? To arrive at the place where you started, but to know it for the first time. I’m able to write about a breakup from a different place. Same brokenness. Same rock-bottom. But a little more informed, now I’m older. Thank God for growing up.”— Alanis Morrisette, theguardian.com
“we spend hours picking our lipstick and call it an afternoon well spent. underneath, our skin hurts. it is trying so hard to grow and we are trying so hard to stop it.”— Fortesa Latifi, madgirlf.tumblr.com
“You become a woman the first time you stand up for yourself when they get your order wrong at a diner, or when you first realize your parents are full of shit. You become a woman the first time you get fitted for a bra and realize you’ve been wearing a very wrong size your whole fucking life. You be…”— Amy Schumer, amazon.com
“I had years of therapy to recover from this. A lot of it had to with being a people pleaser, being the ultimate good girl. I wanted everyone to like me. I didn't really have a voice. I was afraid of growing up.”— Tracey Gold, cnn.com
“Growing up is such a barbarous business, full of inconvenience... and pimples.”— Captain Hook, amazon.com
“You could hear the wind in the leaves, and on that wind traveled the screams of the kids on the playground in the distance, the little kids figuring out how to be alive, how to navigate a world that was not built for them by navigating a playground that was.”— John Green, Hazel, amazon.com
“When you're young, you think your dad is Superman. Then you grow up, and you realize he's just a regular guy who wears a cape.”— Dave Attell, rd.com
“You can tell what was the best year of your father's life, because they seem to freeze that clothing style and ride it out.”— Jerry Seinfeld, rd.com
“When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.”— Mark Twain, ibtimes.co.uk
“By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong.”— Charles Wadworth, ibtimes.co.uk
“A father is a man who expects his children to be as good as he meant to be.”— Carol Coats, ibtimes.co.uk
“Without my father on his Delhi rooftop, why was I here? Without him there, why should I go back? Without that ache between us, what was I made of?”— Kiran Desai, amazon.com
“I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren't trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.”— Umberto Eco, amazon.com