Lynn Johnston Quotes

I often think you bring unhappiness on yourself, because if you don't like yourself very much, you allow yourself to be influenced by people who reinforce that.

- Lynn Johnston

If I was in love with someone, I would get their picture out of the school yearbook and do portraits. If I was curious about sex, I would draw pictures of it. There were no books for me to look at. Then I would go find my father's matches to burn the paper.

- Lynn Johnston

In a way, a certain amount of self-criticism is a good thing, because it keeps you humble. Realizing that no matter what success you've achieved, you can still make enemies makes you humble, too.

- Lynn Johnston

And my father was a comic. He could play any musical instrument. He loved to perform. He was a wonderfully comedic character. He had the ability to dance and sing and charm and analyze poetry.

- Lynn Johnston

Yes, and when I had Aaron, he left me, and I didn't know how to raise a child. And I wasn't close to my parents, and because I was too proud to go to my parents for help, I mistreated that little baby. I didn't want a baby.

- Lynn Johnston

That's what my mother did. And my father was the first person she'd met who treated her kindly. She was terrified of men, and she married a very meek, kind, dear man. And she had the upper hand. She ruled the roost.

- Lynn Johnston

After I got this job at the syndicate, I started sending them money so they could go on trips and do the things they could never afford to do. All the while, I never knew that my mother was socking money away.

- Lynn Johnston

People never knew we were poor, but out of that poverty came the most incredible inventions - board games, recipes... we never stopped inventing.

- Lynn Johnston

You think about child abuse and you think of a father viciously attacking a daughter or a son, but in my family it was my mother. My mother, I would say, was a... very brutal disciplinarian.

- Lynn Johnston

It's taken me a long time to become the person I am, for all the ugliness to fall away. The rotten flesh is gone, and the seed is there. I can touch that now.

- Lynn Johnston

I loved the Little Lulu stories, where she would fantasize that her bedroom rug would turn into a pool of water, and she could dive down into the center of the world.

- Lynn Johnston

I was just so lucky to have a wonderful life after a tough marriage.

- Lynn Johnston

Only a couple of times have I ever been to church and felt enlightened by it.

- Lynn Johnston

When Kate was born, she was born into a world of joy and happiness and confidence. The difference between the children is night and day. She's happy, she's thriving, she's full of self-confidence. I tell her she's beautiful every day before I send her off to school.

- Lynn Johnston

No matter how old you are, there's always something good to look forward to.

- Lynn Johnston

Aaron and I will be joined at the hip until the day we die. We have loved and hated each other since the day he was born. He's very much a part of my heart. He's going to broadcasting college now, and he'll do fine. But he came into a world that did not welcome him.

- Lynn Johnston

My mother was a very literate person who had educated herself. She had an exceptional vocabulary.

- Lynn Johnston

I know it sounds crazy, but I have had far more connection with my parents after their deaths.

- Lynn Johnston

Sure, I've had some bad times, but everybody does. But people don't get to talk about them like I do, unless they do to a therapist. People don't get to put them in the paper like I do.

- Lynn Johnston

The most profound statements are often said in silence.

- Lynn Johnston

Mom and Dad would stay in bed on Sunday morning, but the kids would have to go to church.

- Lynn Johnston

But even though all this was going on at home, if someone had tried to take me away and put me in a children's home, I couldn't have handled it. Even though my mother was very brutal, it was my home.

- Lynn Johnston

You see, anything I imagined, I could draw.

- Lynn Johnston

Complaining is good for you as long as you're not complaining to the person you're complaining about.

- Lynn Johnston

But I married a guy who treated me very badly, but I was happy. I was miserable, so I was happy.

- Lynn Johnston

I've had some tremendous adventures, good and bad. It's part of the novel, and a novel isn't interesting if it doesn't have some good and bad. And you don't know what good is if bad hasn't been a part of your life.

- Lynn Johnston

I've always felt that life is a novel, and part of it is written for you, and part of it is written by you. It's up to you to write the ending, ultimately.

- Lynn Johnston