John Grogan Quotes

#1. Certain people are not going to connect with a book about the effect a dog has on a family. But every one of us has parents and has either said goodbye to those parents or knows that someday they will.

John Grogan

#2. Yet by some stroke of almost providential good fortune, he became wanted.

John Grogan

#3. In the English language, it all comes down to this: Twenty-six letters, when combined correctly, can create magic. Twenty -six letters form the foundation of a free, informed society.

John Grogan

#4. In a dog's life, some plaster would fall, some cushions would open, some rugs would shred. Like any relationship, this one had its costs. They were costs we came to accept and balance against the joy and amusement and protection and companionship he gave us.

John Grogan

#5. I was keenly aware that everybody would have loved for me to do a close sequel or a spin-off to 'Marley and Me.'

John Grogan

#6. I can't solve the world's problems, can't even begin to contemplate them all. But on my little corner of Earth, I at least can try to live in a way that treads lightly.

John Grogan

#7. There's no such thing as a bad dog, just a bad owner.

John Grogan

#8. Even though I'm totally dependent on modern electronic gizmos, from my laptop to my iPod to my cell phone, I love to embrace old technology or no technology at all.

John Grogan

#9. Dogs are great. Bad dogs, if you can really call them that, are perhaps the greatest of them all.

John Grogan

#10. I confess to being a CNN junkie. And when I'm driving, it's all NPR all the time.

John Grogan

#11. I take a lot of satisfaction in trying to make my land as self-contained as possible, its own little mini environment. Minimal outputs; minimal inputs.

John Grogan

#12. Animal lovers are a special breed of humans, generous of spirit, full of empathy, perhaps a little prone to sentimentality, and with hearts as big as a cloudless sky

John Grogan

#13. A dog is the greatest gift a parent can give a child. OK, a good education, then a dog.

John Grogan

#14. Owning a dog always ended with this sadness because dogs just don't live as long as people do.

John Grogan

#15. The rhythm of solitude, once so intimidating, began to feel comfortable. Aloneness, I was learning, does not have to equal loneliness.

John Grogan

#16. Really, as a writer, I believe that if you're going to write about your own life, you need to do it as honestly and candidly as you are capable.

John Grogan

#17. In a world of bosses, you are your own master

John Grogan

#18. A dog doesn't care if you are rich or poor, educated of illiterate, clever or dull. Give him your heart and he will give you his. It was really quite simple, and yet we humans, so much wiser and more sophisticated, have always had trouble figuring out what really counts and what does not.

John Grogan

#19. Living organically is my way of feeling connected to the earth and my own humanity. It's how I feel balanced and at peace with the planet.

John Grogan

#20. If you still think you're a young pup then you are, no matter what the calendar says

John Grogan

#21. Many of the qualities that come so effortlessly to dogs - loyalty, devotion, selflessness, unflagging optimism, unqualified love - can be elusive to humans.

John Grogan

#22. He taught us the art of unqualified love. How to give it, how to accept it. Where there is that, most other pieces fall into place.

John Grogan

#23. A dog doesn't care if you're rich or poor, educated or illiterate, clever or dull. Give him your heart and he will give you his.

John Grogan

#24. Such short little lives our pets have to spend with us, and they spend most of it waiting for us to come home each day.
It is amazing how much love and laughter they bring into our lives and even how much closer we become with each other because of them.

John Grogan

#25. When I wrote 'Marley & Me,' I had a clear audience in mind. And it did not include children. I wrote my book for adults and assumed only adults, and possibly teenagers, would be drawn to it.

John Grogan

#26. I had never thought of Marley as any kind of model, but sitting there sipping my beer, I was aware that maybe he held the secret for a good life. Never slow down, never look back, live each day w/ adolescent verve and spunk and curiosity and playfulness.

John Grogan

#27. I collect old rusty hand tools and sharpen and polish them, then use them to build things out of walnut and cherry that I harvest from fallen trees in the woods.

John Grogan

#28. 'Marley and Me' was a book I was proud of and believed in, but I thought it would just have a modest audience because it is such a personal story about my marriage and my family.

John Grogan

#29. Cats will outsmart dogs every time.

John Grogan

#30. It's just the most amazing thing to love a dog, isn't it? It makes our relationships with people seem as boring as a bowl of oatmeal.

John Grogan

#31. Before moving to Pennsylvania in 1999, I played bass in a newsroom rock band in South Florida for several years.

John Grogan

#32. I'm pathologically incapable of making decisions. Just ask my wife how long it took me to propose - on second thought, best not to bring it up.

John Grogan

#33. Dogs are a really amazing eye opener for us humans because their lives are compressed into such a short period, so we can see them go from puppyhood to adolescence to strong adulthood and then into their sunset years in 10 to 12 years. It really drives home the point of how finite all our lives are.

John Grogan