Top 80 Terry McMillan Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 2 of 2

51. “It’s sad to think that we’ve gotten to this that we actually have to think about how to go about finding a man. But what’s even sadder is that some men make you feel guilty for looking.”

— Terry McMillan

52. “Sometimes I cheat and buy things I used to make from scratch and just doctor them up.”

— Terry McMillan

53. “As far as young kids go, my primary interest is to get parents to read to their kids. That’s about the most you can do, I think.”

— Terry McMillan

54. “My stories are character driven.”

— Terry McMillan

55. “We never thought some guy would deliberately fill our hearts with brown sugar and then pour hot water all over it.”

— Terry McMillan

56. “I like gay men who don’t hate women, and I don’t mind being around rich white people, because there’s plenty of them in the Bay Area, and I know how to ignore Republicans.”

— Terry McMillan

57. “I became a better person because of the time I spent with him, knowing him. I never got a chance to tell him that.”

— Terry McMillan

58. “They learned the hard way that you can’t save nobody who ain’t interested in being saved.”

— Terry McMillan

59. “I take what people feel and think, especially when it’s different from, very seriously, and I find it liberating.”

— Terry McMillan

60. “He encouraged me to take one more deep puff and hold it in, so I did, and the smoke traveled down on top of my esophagus and then did a U-turn up into where my brain was supposed to be. At first it felt like fireworks, and then I began to feel like I was floating down a stream. I liked it. And I took another puff and studied my ass off. The next morning, however, I would fail my very first Spanish exam, because I would not remember how to conjugate anything except Abraham.”

— Terry McMillan

61. “I pray for my mother. That if she can’t ever recover what she’s lost or what she’s losing, that she not feel like she’s lost. I pray that we make her feel necessary and valued as long as possible. That she comes to know comfort, even if I can’t provide it myself.”

— Terry McMillan

62. “The best rush in the world is getting something at 80 percent off.”

— Terry McMillan

63. “Few writers are willing to admit writing is autobiographical.”

— Terry McMillan

64. “When I hear the doorbell, I push myself to a standing position and head upstairs. “Coming!” I yell while dancing to an unidentifiable beat that’s obviously not coming out of the speakers. This is just one more reason I like wine.”

— Terry McMillan

65. “I’ve got tons of irreplaceable information inside the soul of this computer.”

— Terry McMillan

66. “I would like to think that as a result of not just my own experiences, but at least being empathetic and compassionate about other people’s experiences and plights and tragedies, that I am affected by it and learn from it.”

— Terry McMillan

67. “I don’t let negative criticism, for the most part, bother me.”

— Terry McMillan

68. “Let me put it this way: when I read, I learned the world was not as small as my house. And that everybody in my home town was not representative of the way people in the world were raised. And that was what saved me.”

— Terry McMillan

69. “What it takes is real hard work. Ain’t nobody gon’ give you nothing in this world unless you work for it.”

— Terry McMillan

70. “Most women are amazing. They just need to be with someone who makes it easy for them to express it. I think it’s called respect.”

— Terry McMillan

71. “I like doing the readings and the autographing, but the interviewing gets a little tedious because you get asked the same questions every day and sometimes three or four times a day.”

— Terry McMillan

72. “Change is hard, and sometimes I think I should just turn to drugs and stay high and not worry about a damn thing.”

— Terry McMillan

73. “Being a lifetime wife and mother has afforded me the luxury of having multiple careers: I’ve been a teacher. A chauffeur. A chef. An interior decorator. A landscape architect, as well as a gardener. I’ve been a painter. A personal shopper. An accountant and a banker. I’ve been a beautician. Santa Claus. The Tooth Fairy. A movie reviewer. A nurse. A psychologist. A negotiator. An I have a Ph. D in How to Pretend Like You Don’t Mind.”

— Terry McMillan

74. “I try to create characters that I am fascinated by on some level or intrigued by or can’t stand.”

— Terry McMillan

75. “It’s amazing how we can make ourselves believe what we want to.”

— Terry McMillan

76. “Over the years it became clear that sometimes you fall in love only to realize you don’t even like the person.”

— Terry McMillan

77. “I also discovered that you can get used to a man, much like you do a household pet!”

— Terry McMillan

78. “Always listen to the parent who doesn’t like who you love. They can smell a mistake.”

— Terry McMillan

79. “I let my characters do the talking, simple as that.”

— Terry McMillan

80. “As I watched, I was wondering how many of them were suffering from something, trying to recover from something. How many of them had lost a loved one or were suffering from a broken heart? How many of them were worried about a loved one? A child. A parent. A friend.”

— Terry McMillan

81. “That it is still important to keep improving our lives, even at our age, and we should treat ourselves better and stop acting like our best years are behind us.”

— Terry McMillan

82. “Nobody should have to hide who they are inside to please people on the outside.”

— Terry McMillan

83. “How do you tell a man – in a nice way – that he makes you sick?”

— Terry McMillan

84. “I’m trying to stop lying to myself about little things. I’m still working on the big ones.”

— Terry McMillan