Top 209 Quotes & Sayings by Emily Giffin

I think it's important to try to be present with whatever it is you're doing. And if you can't be present, take a break.

Well, shoes, bags and clutches are usually my big weaknesses - my husband always laughs when I call them 'investment pieces.'

I was actually born in Baltimore! Although I moved away when I was quite young and consider Chicago to be my hometown, Baltimore is sentimental to me, and I still keep in touch with family friends I knew as a little girl.

Often I feel that projects overwhelm us when we look at how many hours are involved until completion. But just getting started is usually not that difficult.

My mother has always been an Anglophile and taught my sister and me to love British history and literature.

Inevitably I draw on my own relationships when I write, so if I'm writing about a fight between a husband and his wife, of course I'm going to think about a recent fight with my husband. Or if I'm writing about sisters, of course I'm going to think about my sister.

A theme in a lot of my books - and in my own life - is making choices that you feel you should make, or what society wants you to make, as opposed to what is truly right for you.

I never outline my novels before I write. I do have a vague sense of beginning, middle, and end at the outset of each book, but for me, writing has always been a very character-driven process.

I aim for four workouts a week. I work out with a trainer once a week. Then, I take a circuit class twice a week. The fourth workout is random, depending on what I'm in the mood for - either a run, a spin class, or yoga.

I try to have something in common with my protagonists, especially when I'm writing in the first person.

Life is about the gray areas. Things are seldom black and white, even when we wish they were and think they should be, and I like exploring this nuanced terrain.

I think it always feels riskier and scarier to go after something you really love and want because the rejection and failure hurts more.

I have increasingly steeled myself to criticism, but it still can sting, especially when you feel that it is unfair - or that they are judging my book by its cover or by preconceived notions.

Everyone wants to belong, or be a part of something bigger than themselves, but it's important to follow your heart and be true to yourself in the process.

Guilt is a supreme waste of time and energy.

For true downtime, I enjoy going for light runs, having drinks with friends and going to the movies with my husband.

My favorite movie of all-time is 'Stand By Me,' and I re-read my favorite young adult books often.

I try to write about real women, real people - in other words flawed characters.

I did read all my old diaries and was quite surprised by the overwhelming melancholic tone. I remember things being rosier than they really were.

I really try to focus on my books and readers.

I have always been drawn to coming-of-age stories and books and movies featuring compelling young characters.

'Something Borrowed' was initially titled 'Rolling the Dice,' but my editor said it sounded like a men's gambling memoir.

My books are all relationship-focused, so much of my inspiration comes from my own relationships and the issues and concerns that arise among my friends and family.

I have unabashed Bieber Fever and routinely Google 'Justin and Selena.' They are so cute together.

I find flawed characters much more interesting than perfect ones and enjoy the challenge of making readers root for them in spite of their unsympathetic path and destructive choices.

I feel a great connection with my readers and would never want to disappoint them.

I've been obsessed with the Kennedys since I was a child, and Bobby Kennedy is, hands down, my favorite among them.

For an interesting nonfiction read, I really enjoyed 'Quiet' by Susan Cain. I read it with my husband, who is a true introvert, whereas I am an introvert masquerading as an extrovert.

Writing a teen character is something I wanted to try again for a long time!

My books aren't autobiographical.

I think exercise is critical to my writing and an essential way to recharge.

Darcy, the heroine of 'Something Blue,' is quite shallow and opinionated. At one point, she commented that she dislikes 'gingers,' i.e., men with red hair. I received several emails from fiery redheads who said they were offended by 'my' comments. I had to remind them that it is fiction.

I like to match what I wear to my book jacket - it's a little bit cheesy, but it's my thing.

I try to recognize that there is no such thing as having it all - and it's impossible to be perfect. You just have to let certain things go.

Like the rest of the planet, I'm absolutely dying to see Baz Luhrmann's 'The Great Gatsby' and am thrilled that Leonardo DiCaprio was cast in it - he's perfect.

I write about messy relationships, and they put pastel covers on them, but I can't complain.

To write convincingly, I think you must be able to relate, in some way, to what a character is experiencing.

I'm a huge Elizabeth Berg fan. Her novels are always charming, thoughtful, and filled with lively, three-dimensional characters.

It's a funny thing - when I'm crazed with work, spending time with my children relaxes me. Yet, at the end of a long weekend with them, the very thing I need to relax is a little work and time away from them!

I didn't drink in high school, and neither did any of my boyfriends.

I don't really know why I went to law school.

The best thing about being an author is writing stories and having people - strangers all over the world - connect with them.

I've always been intrigued by the power of secrets. When is it justifiable to keep them from the ones we love? And does keeping them irrevocably change who we are?

I think of how each person in a marriage owes it to the other to find individual happiness, even in a shared life. That this is the only way to grow together, instead of apart.

There are two kinds of women--those who eat in a crisis and those who lose their appetite in a crisis.

Happiness is the best revenge, you know? Just be happy. It's a choice.

This is why you should never, ever get your hopes up. This is why you should see the glass as half empty. So when the whole thing spills, you aren’t as devastated.

Maybe that's what it all comes down to. Love, not as a surge of passion, but as a choice to commit to something, someone, no matter what obstacles or temptations stand in the way. And maybe making that choice, again and again, day in and day out, year after year, says more about love than never having a choice to make at all.

Recognizing that there is more heartbreak in continuous disappointment than a void.

A son is a son 'til he gets a wife, but a daughter is a daughter all her life.

Nothing is ever perfect. It is what you make of it.

Love and friendship. They are what make us who we are, and what can change us, if we let them.

Although I'm sure there are plenty of tall, gorgeous, life-of-the-party guys who are also true to their wives, I happen to believe that a disproportionate number of them are cheaters.

Change can be good but its always tough to let go of the past

...love is the sum of our choices, the strength of our commitments, the ties that bind us together.

You’ll never regret being a good friend.

Anything worthwhile is tough.

It always takes two. For relationships to work, for them to break apart, for them to be fixed.

You can only control your own actions. Not other people’s reactions.

True love is supposed to make you into a better person-uplift you.