1) “We just need to be kinder to ourselves. If we treated ourselves the way we treated our best friend, can you imagine how much better off we would be?”
2) “It’s important to remember that life is great because you can’t be fulfilled unless you’re alive.”
3) “With fame comes opportunity, but it also includes responsibility—to advocate and share, to focus less on glass slippers and more on pushing through glass ceilings. And, if I’m lucky enough, to inspire.”
4) “I’m still the same person that I am, and I’ve never defined myself by my relationship.”
5) “This would be a much better and more peaceful world if we all stopped pretending to be people we’re not pretending to be.”
6) “Now is always the best time for the present.”
7) “The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy.”
8) “Make a choice: Continue living your life feeling muddled in this abyss of self-misunderstanding, or you find your identity independent of it.”
9) “Good things happen to those people who can afford it.”
10) “You should always try to never let sad, depressing, tragic, heartbreaking things ever get you down.”
11) “Traveling gives you some perspective of what the rest of the world is like. I think that having the courage to step out of the norm is the most important thing.”
12) “Only by facing and rising up to your challenges can your challenges ever defeat you.”
13) “It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.”
14) “I’ve never wanted to be a lady who lunches—I’ve always wanted to be a woman who works. And this type of work is what feeds my soul and fuels my purpose.”
15) “Sometimes I accomplish the most by just doing nothing.”
16) “I don’t sit around thinking about my titles and roles; I just do what feels right.”
17) “You draw your own box. You introduce yourself as who you are.... You create the identity you want for yourself.”
18) “If it’s inevitable, then it’s going to happen.”
19) “We seldom speak of what we have but often of what we lack.”
20) “I think the biggest part of being a girl boss in the office, at home, or anywhere you go is just knowing your value.”
21) “You can get inspiration from the silliest things: the petal of a tulip, the rusted façade of a dumpster, the smell of bacon, the facet of a large diamond.”
(Answers: 1, 3, 4, 8, 11, 14, 16, 17, 20 are genuine Meghan Markle–isms; 2, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, and 21 are made up; 7, 13, and 19 are attributed to Arthur Schopenhauer.)
Ted Heller is the author of four books, including West of Babylon
