Top 40 Dorothea Benton Frank Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Books were my passion and my escape from madness.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

2. “Anyway, stories bring us together to find common ground, to find our way through life together, or just to entertain us, and I am just thrilled to be a part of that process.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

3. “Makes you grow up quick. Hard work makes you strong. I work hard every day; that’s where I get my strength. That and knowing who I am.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

4. “Life’s a gift, that’s why they call today the present.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

5. “My family always comes first. My world revolves around my husband, Peter, our daughter, Victoria, and our son, William, but not necessarily in that order. Then, it’s this fascinating world of publishing that devours most of my days and many nights.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

6. “Mother of the groom. Wear beige and shut up.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

7. “Dreams made your eyes sparkle over the possibilities of doing something new and exciting. Reality made the rest of you break a sweat in panic. I was terrified.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

8. “I love to cook, my husband and I collect wine, and in my head, I am always on Sullivan’s Island, walking the beach listening to the song of the ocean.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

9. “I think I’ve learned that if you want to be successful, you have to tell your story honestly and from your heart – and I think a healthy sense of humor doesn’t hurt either.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

10. “Miss Trudie said, “Well, like my momma used to say, butter my butt and call me a biscuit. This takes the cake.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

11. “Reaching for his toothbrush, I looked at it and realized he’d been brushing his teeth for somebody else for a long time. I don’t know what possessed me to do it but I dunked it in the toilet. That pleased me so much that I rubbed it around the inside rim. That seemed so pleasant I then scrubbed up under the rim, good and hard, where no toilet brush could’ve reached in weeks.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

12. “They say you only have so many breaths in your lifetime, and I think disappointments might be the same.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

13. “Give the ones you love wings to fly, roots to come back to, and reasons to stay.’ I just always loved.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

14. “Here’s my definition of a great beach read – a fabulous story that sucks me in like a black hole and when it’s over, it jettisons my bones across the galaxy with a hair on fire mission to convince everyone I know that they must read that book or they will die.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

15. “Few people realize how much courage it takes in a community like ours to ignore the established taboos.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

16. “That’s what I wanted for myself for even just a little while-to be unaware of the rest of the world. I needed some time.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

17. “If you want to know why all writers are a little crazy read ‘The Midnight Disease’ by Alice W. Flaherty. She talks about the drive to write, writer’s block, and the creative brain. I know what’s wrong with me!”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

18. “God, middle age is an unending insult.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

19. “What I wanted to do was to earn enough money to pay for my mother’s house. When my mother passed away, I wanted to buy it from the rest of my family and keep the house in the family. That was the only reason I even attempted writing for money.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

20. “Naturally, we shopped, we had lunch, we did homework and we cleaned closets together. But beyond those mundane amusements – and.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

21. “All the while I was trying to figure out if I knew anyone who had married and stayed in love for decades. I thought about Daddy and Momma. Daddy had loved Momma with a great passion. Everyone knew that. But, why? I knew why! The ugly truth was that he loved her because of how she made him feel, not because of who she was. Was that the nature of a man’s love for a woman? Not what you bring to the table, but how you make him feel? I was drinking a cup.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

22. “What was that old story about how women had a better chance of being abducted by aliens than they did getting married after forty?”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

23. “When I close my eyes for the last time, an entire library of instructions for genuinely rewarding living will go with me.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

24. “And if you want to know why great editors scare the pants off of writers everywhere, read ‘Eats, Shoots and Leaves’ by Lynne Truss. The punctuation police are everywhere!”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

25. “Once I figured out what I was going to do with my life, I was definitely going to get a dog. Maybe I’d get a rescue. I liked the idea of an older dog that was already broken in and just needed a loving home. The irony was, that wasn’t too different from how I was feeling about myself.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

26. “He had reframed himself in my mind as a thickheaded man who couldn’t conceive that his words and actions hurt me deeply, benign as he may have thought they were. The consequences were that what he had done changed the way I felt about him. And a halfhearted apology wouldn’t restore my love for him.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

27. “Isn’t it amazing how much good people can do for each other when you give them the opportunity to help?”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

28. “A new year was a chance to start over. Maybe even, just maybe, there would be a peace on earth for one entire day.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

29. “At some point you can no longer insist that your children do this or that. I had learned this lesson the hard way. You have to let them fall down and then you can help them get back up. But you have to let them become adults.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

30. “Please. Don’t use the Lord’s name, unless you’re in prayer. It’s a hundred years in purgatory.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

31. “I would talk to him over breakfast and try to gauge how he was handling his life. Life is a struggle, I would tell him. Some days are better than others, and every person’s life is bittersweet, filled with joy and pain.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

32. “Yeah, I know.” The poor girl. I felt very bad.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

33. “Funny how something that seemed so insignificant, just an old bowl with faded glazed stripes, could trigger so many memories.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

34. “I have always loved to read, and now that I have penned 10 novels and a few magazine articles, I have fallen seriously in love with writing stories and seeing them go out into the world. It’s magical, you know?”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

35. “It’s a funny thing about a good porch overlooking the ocean. It was great in hot weather when you needed shade. It was good when it rained to be close to nature but stay dry and safe. It was soothing in the dark, or it could be a place to whisper secrets late at night. So.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

36. “You could tell a lot about the soul of an organization by the reading material in its waiting area.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

37. “As authentic as it is riveting and ultimately unforgettable. Your past will find you-and it can change your life. I think it’s the most soulful book Patti Callahan has ever written.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

38. “David Harper was Hollywood handsome but he had a Conan the Barbarian temper to go with his looks.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

39. “I took his aftershave and cologne out of the medicine cabinet. It occurred to me that he’d been wearing these for Karen. I peed in the bathroom glass, drained the Aramis and poured urine into two of his cologne bottles. “Up yours,” I said quietly. I dropped the bottles in his bag and zipped it closed.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

40. “Maybe it was what I needed too. For all those years I told myself.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

41. “No,” I said and smiled. “I just happen to like the taste of that particular grape.” “Oh?” “Yeah. I think chardonnays are too oaky and heavy and German wines are too sweet. But if my roommate and I are sharing a bottle of something, it’s usually on sale.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

42. “I don’t believe in God because somebody told me I have to or I’ll burn in hell. I believe in God because I do. And if I can accept the whole concept of God, and I do, then why not Jesus too?”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

43. “I don’t always want to read serious fiction. But when I read fiction that’s not serious, I don’t want to read brain candy. Entertain me, for God’s sake.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

44. “The first indication of menopause is a broken thermostat. It’s either that or your weight. In any case, if you don’t do something, you could be dead by August. God, middle age is an unending insult.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

45. “Larson would kick my butt! This is good.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

46. “Did my daughter, my only child, think she was going to take control of her wedding, without me?”

— Dorothea Benton Frank

47. “As long as she loved my boy, I loved her. If she broke his heart, I’d kill her with my bare hands. This seemed reasonable to me. But.”

— Dorothea Benton Frank