Patti Davis Quotes

It takes strength to make your way through grief, to grab hold of life and let it pull you forward.

No one ever saw all of him. It took me nearly four decades to allow my father his shadows, his reserve, to sit silently with him and not clamor for something more.

My father would never have said about any of his children you shouldn’t express your opinions. But it’s the way in which you express them. And for me to do – to speak at demonstrations and be as strident as I was now I see wasn’t right. And it – there was a better way to do it. I could have written articles.

Some people, when they die, leave so much life behind that we wonder how they did it.

I would not call myself a veteran conspiracy theorist. Or an obsessed one. I pretty much peaked on the whole conspiracy theory thing in the ’60s, with the grassy knoll, who really killed JFK, and who ordered the hit on Lee Harvey Oswald.

I don’t think it’s an accident who our parents are; I believe we choose them. So maybe I chose my parents in order to effect change.

The CIA created, armed and financed the Contras. My father backed them with everything he had. It was my father’s war, and almost everyone in Nicaragua has lost somebody as a result of it. I couldn’t go down there, being his daughter, and expect not to feel those people’s wrath.

I felt that the best I could do for my father, and the best I could do for myself, and my mother and my family was to stay open to the experience, and learn whatever I could at every step of the way as it was going on.

I knew people were independently publishing, and I buy books on Amazon. I began seriously considering it when Amanda Hocking was in the news about her self-publishing success.

There is a point in the grieving process when you can run away from memories or walk straight toward them.

I grew up in this era where your parents’ friends were all called aunt and uncle. And then I had an aunt and an aunt. We saw them on holidays and other times. We never talked about it, but I just understood that they were a couple.

We do things in our past that we need to do at the time.

And as far as false hope, there is no such thing. There is only hope or the absence of hope-nothing else.

You have to separate yourself from your parents. You do. In order to find yourself.

I had this odd sibling rivalry with America.

I think people ultimately reveal themselves to everybody. I think that’s the case with Sarah Palin‘s conduct, particularly after the Tucson shooting, I think she‘s sort of digging herself into a hole. I hope – I really hope.

The memories that I have are mostly at our old ranch, out in Agoura. We used to go out there every Saturday. I can smell the oak trees. I can see it so clearly.

You know, if you hang around this earth long enough you really see how things come full circle.

I did what most writers do when something happens that’s overwhelming, fascinating, moving, all of that. I didn’t know what else to do about it except write about it.

Laura Bush went on national television during the week of my father’s funeral and spoke out against embryonic stem cell research, pointing out that where Alzheimer‘s is concerned, we don’t have proof that stem-cell treatment would be effective.

Loss teaches you to figure things out as they come along.

When I was a child, our summer days were spent swimming; chlorine in my hair was like perfume to me.

The thing about losing any loved one, I think, particularly in a long disease, is that you know that other people have gone through it and are going through it, but I think for every person it feels unique.

Of course, people say maybe there are some self-published books out there that shouldn’t be out there. Well, it’s the same with conventional publishing.

Callista Gingrich has, I suspect, given Newt’s advisers a giant headache. She’s a constant presence at her husband‘s side – and a constant reminder of his acknowledged infidelity. Newt cheated on his second wife with Callista, a woman 23 years his junior.

I often imagine what it would be like if my father were still here to mark his 100th birthday, if Alzheimer’s hadn’t clawed away years, possibilities, hopes. What would he think of all the commemorations and celebrations?

I was such a punk.

Politics isn’t what defines a person, and it shouldn’t define a relationship. I made the mistake of letting that intrude on my relationships.

I think we can work through a lot of political and international problems, but what really frightens me is what’s happening environmentally.

Puppies, like all babies, grow up fast. Before long, Gracie was no longer barking at her reflection, instead offering a blase look that seemed to say, ‘I know what that is now. I know it’s not another dog.’

After September 11, I got to understand a little bit of his deep love for this country.

I really just sat down to write. I mean, I did what most writers do when something happens that’s overwhelming, fascinating, moving, all of that.

When my father, Ronald Reagan, was running for president in 1980, my mother, Nancy, traveled with him on the campaign trail, but she did not give speeches or even many interviews. She never stood in front of a group of reporters and expounded on her views and opinions.