Gail Sheehy

"We really only have two choices. Play it safe, or take a chance. For me, pulling back because of fear has always made me feel worse."

"Being a pathfinder is to be willing to risk failure and still go on."

"Career-driven millennials are strategic about working obsessively while they are single and earning enough money to afford advanced education. Most are patient enough to wait until 30 or later to develop their dream."

"I keep returning to the central question facing over-50 women as we move into our Second Adulthood. What are our goals for this stage in our lives?"

"If you begin to think you are solely responsible for keeping your loved one alive and safe, you will eventually find yourself playing God. This phase can develop into an unhealthy, codependent relationship."

"In my memoir, I admit that I've been as fearful of success as of failure. In fact, when 'Passages' was published, I so dreaded bad reviews that I ran away to Italy with a girlfriend and our children to hide out."

"The delights of self-discovery are always available."

"The dream for many millennial women is to make a difference as social or political entrepreneurs. They are using the social media and marketing tools they have mastered to empower less fortunate women and direct them onto career tracks that women have traditionally avoided, like science and technology."

"When men reach their sixties and retire, they go to pieces. Women go right on cooking."