Miriam Toews Quotes

Powerful Miriam Toews for Daily Growth

About Miriam Toews

Miriam Toews is a distinguished Canadian novelist, essayist, and playwright who has garnered acclaim for her profound explorations of identity, family dynamics, and the human condition. Born on March 16, 1956, in Hamburg, Manitoba, Canada, Toews spent her early years in a Mennonite community before leaving at age 20 to pursue a degree in English Literature at the University of Manitoba. Toews' literary journey was significantly influenced by her upbringing and her Mennonite background, which she often integrates into her works as a way to critique and explore its tenets. Her first novel, "Summer of My Amazing Luck," published in 1996, delved into themes of family, faith, and feminism. One of Toews' most notable works is the Man Booker Prize-shortlisted novel, "A Complicated Kindness" (2004), a poignant tale set in a Mennonite community that revolves around the struggles of a teenage girl trying to navigate her identity. This book was followed by "The Flying Troutmans" (2008), another novel exploring family dynamics, and "Irma Voth" (2011), a story about a young Mennonite woman who leaves her community to become a filmmaker in Mexico. In addition to her novels, Toews has penned several essay collections, including "Swing Low: A Life" (2004) and "Half-Blood Blues" (2018). Her works are characterized by their emotional honesty, dark humor, and penetrating insights into the human psyche. Miriam Toews continues to be a significant voice in Canadian literature, pushing boundaries with her unflinching portrayals of complex characters and challenging societal norms. Her works remain deeply resonant, inviting readers to grapple with universal themes of love, loss, identity, and the search for meaning.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"The truth is, there's no way to be a good mother, and if there were it wouldn't matter, because everybody fails."

This quote by Miriam Toews suggests that there are no absolute standards or perfect methods for being a good mother; every individual and every situation is unique. The inherent imperfection of humanity implies that everyone will inevitably fall short in some aspect of their role as a parent. This doesn't diminish the importance or value of their efforts, but rather acknowledges the challenges and complexities involved in nurturing and raising another human being. Embracing this perspective encourages empathy, understanding, and resilience within the context of motherhood, promoting compassionate interactions between parents and children.


"I think that love is like the sun. You can feel it most when things are cloudy, but really, it's always there."

This quote suggests that love, much like the sun, is a constant presence that offers comfort and warmth, particularly in difficult or challenging times. When life seems "cloudy" or uncertain, love provides a source of light and hope. However, it's important to remember that love is always there, even when it may not be immediately felt or acknowledged, just as the sun continues shining even on overcast days. In essence, this quote emphasizes the resilience and enduring nature of love.


"The important thing is to keep on keeping on."

This quote by Miriam Toews emphasizes the importance of persistence and resilience in life, particularly when facing challenges or difficult situations. It suggests that regardless of the obstacles one may encounter, it's essential to continue moving forward, staying committed, and not giving up on one's goals and aspirations. The phrase "keeping on" implies a steady, consistent effort towards personal growth and fulfillment.


"When I grow up, I want to be a writer who writes books that make people want to read them because they're good and true and funny and real."

This quote highlights Miriam Toews' desire to become an author whose work resonates with readers due to its authenticity, humor, truthfulness, and relatability. She aspires to write novels that are not only well-crafted but also reflective of real life experiences, evoking emotional responses from the audience.


"It's never too late to become the person you might have been."

This quote by Miriam Toews encourages the idea that personal growth and transformation can occur at any point in one's life, suggesting that it is never too late for an individual to fulfill their true potential or discover their authentic self. It serves as a reminder that despite past experiences, mistakes, or circumstances, people have the capacity for change, self-discovery, and self-improvement. This idea emphasizes the importance of personal development, resilience, and the pursuit of one's dreams, no matter the age or stage in life.


When a person becomes a legend, the very thing that makes them human and knowable is killed off, so it's like being killed over and over and over again, for all eternity.

- Miriam Toews

Eternity, Over, Very, Legend

Canada has, at times, represented itself as a country in a valiant struggle against powerful and menacing agents that are indifferent to its special practices and sensibilities - most especially American culture. It's the old, outdated garrison mentality.

- Miriam Toews

American, Country, Against, Practices

The requests for blurbs seem to come in waves. I'm not sure what precipitates them. I think it must be excruciating for editors to draft those elaborate letters asking for a blurb, and I know it's torturous for us writers to ask directly. But publishers encourage us to. Rock and a hard place.

- Miriam Toews

Asking, I Think, Elaborate, Hard Place

There are people who are just suicidal, regardless. They are built to self-destruct. It seems, in my family, like a virus that's resistant to any kind of help or care or medication.

- Miriam Toews

Kind, Like, Built, Medication

I stare out the window and reflect on the similarity between writing and saving a life and the inevitable failure of one's imagination and one's goals and ambitions to create a character or a life worth saving.

- Miriam Toews

Imagination, Out, Inevitable, Goals

I have a problem with beginnings... and endings... and middles. But I don't know what else I would do. I find it very, very difficult to write. It takes everything; it's physically and mentally and emotionally exhausting for me. And my neighbours. And my dog.

- Miriam Toews

Difficult, Very, Neighbours, Endings

A writer is always, always searching, even against her will, against all her better instincts, for the thread of a story. Everything is fodder. Everything is fuel. You can feel it coming on like the tingling of a sore throat. The brain never stops struggling to reshape every experience and feeling into a coherent narrative.

- Miriam Toews

Fuel, Against, Throat, Sore

My father died beside trees on iron rails... He had 77 dollars on him at the time, and we used the money for Thai takeout because, as my friend Julie says about times like this, 'You still have to eat.'

- Miriam Toews

Father, About, Had, Beside

The whole notion of pain, and how every individual experiences pain, is up for debate. We don't know how another person experiences pain - physical pain or psychic pain. Some of these clinics where assisted suicide or euthanasia is practiced, they call it 'weariness of life.'

- Miriam Toews

Some, Another, Clinics, Assisted

'Cue for Treason,' by Geoffrey Trease, radicalized my young girl brain and made me want to be a gender-bending, sonnet-writing anarchist. It really made something roar to life inside of me.

- Miriam Toews

Young, Treason, Young Girl, Cue

I remember a very nurturing, safe environment: everybody knew who I was, who my parents were, who my grandparents were, what part of Russia we were from originally. That was a really comforting feeling. Non-Mennonites, when they see that aspect of it, think it's a beautiful thing, and it is, but there's so much going on besides.

- Miriam Toews

I Remember, Everybody, Very, Beautiful Thing

A lot of times, people think that it doesn't make sense for people to be depressed when they have everything, a loving husband, a successful career, fame and fortune. I wanted to make this point that profound despair can strike anybody.

- Miriam Toews

Husband, Career, Anybody, Despair

There are so many things in my life that would be completely not on within the conservative church. And yet I think of myself as a reasonably decent human being. With all sorts of flaws, you know, but still reasonably decent. If I did believe in Heaven and Hell, I would really, honestly, believe I was going to go to Heaven.

- Miriam Toews

My Life, Conservative, Reasonably

I would never want to deny my Mennonite background and culture; I'll always feel like and be identified as a Mennonite and therefore possess that little extra authority on our beliefs. I also see myself as a Canadian writer.

- Miriam Toews

Feel, Canadian, Our, Extra

There was no freer soul in the world than me at age nine.

- Miriam Toews

Soul, World, Nine, Freer

The writing life is one long, never-ending search for narrative. Well, it's not even a conscious searching. It happens even while you're busy buying groceries and when you're fast asleep. It's a curse.

- Miriam Toews

Searching, Narrative, While, Never-Ending

A depressed person is often a person who will push others away. If you are pushed away and pushed away and pushed away, you have to have an enormous amount of inner resources to keep going back.

- Miriam Toews

Will, Away, Amount, Push

With my father and sister being very depressed for most of their lives, it was incumbent on me to try to make them laugh, in this ridiculous way. They were the wittiest people I knew, but to get a smile from them was like winning the lottery.

- Miriam Toews

Father, Very, Incumbent, Depressed

You don't need a religious background to strive for something good, for genuine compassion and love for others.

- Miriam Toews

Love, Need, Religious, Something Good

When everything does seem out of control, writing fiction is a way I can order that chaos and restore some sort of meaning. I like the playful aspect of writing fiction. You know how it is when we are kids and we make up our worlds: You be this guy, and I am going to be this guy, and we are going to go slay dragons.

- Miriam Toews

Some, Fiction, Worlds, Dragons

Writing helps me to create order out of chaos and make sense of things. It helps me to understand what I've experienced, what I've felt and seen, so it becomes a little easier to handle. On the other hand, I don't want it to be just a cathartic experience, an outpouring of grief or whatever it is.

- Miriam Toews

Other, Outpouring, Cathartic, Grief

I don't see any division between the comic and the tragic. I feel like I'm writing about serious things, and humour is one of my tools. It's not contrived, just part of my world, part of the way things are to me.

- Miriam Toews

Feel, Part, About, Tragic

The British are actually a lot more appreciative of the comic. In Canada, if you're perceived as a comic writer, there's a real snobbery, and you can't be serious. You're not a big hitter.

- Miriam Toews

Big, More, Snobbery, Appreciative

At one point in my life, I wanted to do a master's degree in Irish literature, but I ended up getting pregnant instead.

- Miriam Toews

My Life, Degree, Irish, Pregnant

The theme of sisters - of missing sisters, of needing sisters, the special love that sisters share or the antagonism sisters share - is something that is very close to me.

- Miriam Toews

Love, Special, Very, Missing

I don't even know what 'successful' means. We're all failures. Look at the world. We're all complicit.

- Miriam Toews

Failures, Complicit, Means, Successful

A person might see that I've blurbed a certain book and decide they want nothing to do with it! Like, 'If that reprobate Toews likes it, forget it!' So, it's a crapshoot. But it feels good to be able to praise a book that I love or that has been written by a new writer.

- Miriam Toews

Love, Been, Feels, Crapshoot

In writing fiction, I can be free. I can use my life. The raw material is my experiences.

- Miriam Toews

My Life, Use, Raw Material, Raw

'Irma Voth' is my sixth book, but it's only the third time I've featured Mennonite settings and characters.

- Miriam Toews

Book, Settings, Featured, Sixth

I spent 18 years in a small Mennonite town in the middle of the Canadian prairies.

- Miriam Toews

Small, Middle, Town, Prairie

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