Quotes from Alexandra Potter

I've learned if there's one gift you can give yourself in life, it's the freedom and courage to say "I don't know". Because I'll let you into a secret – you don't have to know. You don't have to know how you feel, or what you want, or if you're happy or if you're sad.

We think we know what we want, but we can never really know until we've got it. And sometimes when we have, we discover we never really wanted it in the first place - but then it's too late.

They don't do it to be cruel. Quite the opposite. I've found friends and acquaintances keep their distance because they don't want to upset you or say the wrong thing. What they don't realize is you're already upset beyond anything they could ever say or do. It's their silence that upsets you. You feel isolated. Abandoned.

No one ever died of cellulite or wrinkles.

Remember that, love. When life buries us under all its heartache and disappointment, think about a seed. It needs to be buried in order for it to grow. That's how the magic happens. But you have to have faith. Remember that. Patience and faith.

But that's one of the good things about getting older: often the most terrible of things turn into the most amusing through the lens of time.

One thing I've learned through this bloody awful time is that grief isn't linear. You can be doing all right, then it will suddenly come out of nowhere. It's the silly little things that remind you .

Don't worry about getting older, worry about becoming dull.

If I can give you one bit of advice, it's never to make your own fries. Buy frozen. Life is too short to be peeling potatoes.

Because it is wonderful. Truly, there's nothing better than being with old friends. You just pick up where you left off, as if you were in the middle of a conversation. Except we've not seen each other since last summer and there's lots to catch up on. New houses, new promotions, new babies.

Sometimes big sisters need looking after too.

My theory is that's why our eyesight goes as we get older: to protect us from seeing ourselves in sharp focus.

Things happen that you don't expect, like I never expected to fall in love with you.

Because feeling like a fuck-up isn't about being a failure, it's about being made to feel like one.

Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.

People always talk about happy endings, but I think it should be happy beginnings. Who wants to talk about endings when ahead is a brand new year, stretching out before you. One filled with infinite possibilities and wonderful new opportunities and decisions to be made and doubts to be had and a whole lot of love to be explored.

Are you saying being normal is being happy ? in that case , most people probably aren't normal

All you need is one good thing to turn life around and make it worth living again.

Word by word, page by page,' Cricket tells her cheerfully, 'that's how a writer writes and how a reader should read. You'll get there in the end. Doesn't matter if it takes six months or a year or longer to finish it. That's what I always used to tell my husband.

Just some small, random act of kindness – something seemingly inconsequential. Like a smile from a stranger, or a song on the radio, or a beautiful sunset . . . or the barista giving you a love heart on your coffee.

When life buries us under all its heartache and disappointment, think about a seed. It needs to be buried in order for it to grow. That's how the magic happens. But you have to have faith. Remember that. Patience and faith.

the people who matter will see you, no matter what.

What I want to know is, when did busy become better? When did a jam-packed diary become a measure of success?

I want to look forwards. To new things. New places. New adventures. Otherwise I'm just living a life where a part of me is missing.