Erin McKean Quotes

You don’t owe prettiness to anyone. Not to your boyfriend/spouse/partner, not to your co-workers, especially not to random men on the street. You don’t owe it to your mother, you don’t owe it to your children, you don’t owe it to civilization in general. Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked ‘female’.

People say to me, ‘How do I know if a word is real?’ You know, anybody who’s read a children’s book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it. That makes it real.

By the time the traditionally male lexicographers become interested in looking at fashion words, their origins are lost in the mists of time.

Lexicographers are language reporters.

Aging has been bad ever since we figured out it led to dying.

Serendipity is when you find things you weren't looking for because finding what you are looking for is so damned difficult.

I also think people should never turn down an opportunity to hold a baby. There's something about the feeling of a new baby in your arms that just fixes you.

Language is a nice way to remember things.

All language is a popularity contest.

And I don't like people who eat powdered doughnuts. I don't car how careful you are, they're just plain messy. I can't believe they taste good enough to justify getting that sugar all over everything, especially me.

Experiences is just paying attention as time passes.

You can weaponize nice... Being nice can make you be a little underestimated.

Singing when no one else is around is always good. I especially like belters. Good, loud singing is probably better medicine than half the stuff they sell in pill bottles, and it's cheaper, too. I also think people should never turn down an opportunity to hold a baby. There's something about the feel of a new baby in your arms that just fixes you.

if you want someone to stop listening to you go ahead and yell. If you want them to listen to every word, whisper. -Mimi