"After all, artists - especially writers - need more alone time than regular people.  They crave solitude whereas many people fear it.  They resign themselves to financial uncertainty whereas most people do anything they can to avoid it.  Moreover, if an artist is lucky, her work becomes her legacy, thus theoretically lessening the burden of producing a child to carry it out."
-Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the decision Not to Have Kids  by Meghan Daum

"'When you look into your baby's eyes,' my friend Sarah once said to me, 'that will become your Tibet.'  I have no doubt that looking into one's own baby's eyes is many inexpressibly wonderful things, but one thing it is not is Tibet."
-Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids by Meghan Daum

"But to me, the lack of desire to have a child is innate.  It exists outside of my control.  It is simply who I am and I can take neither credit nor blame for all that it may or may not signify.  But the decision to honor that desire, to find a way to be whole or my own terms even if it means facing the judgment, scorn, and even pity of mainstream society, is a victory.  It's a victory I celebrate every day."
-Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids by Meghan Daum

"I decided to take the love I'd have for a child and give it to myself instead."
-Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids by Meghan Daum

"But herein lies the rub: as it stands now, I suspect that my commitment to and delight in parenting would be formidable that it would take precedence over anything and everything else in my life; that my mastery of motherhood would eclipse my need for - or ability to achieve - success in any other arena.  Basically, I'm afraid of my own competence."
-Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids by Meghan Daum

"She behaved as if there had always been the One Great Leaving and each iteration of it brought the same welling up.  A love that big could only create havoc, and I hurried out of her arms, ashamed to be the one who could stir her up like that."
-Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids by Meghan Daum

"Meanwhile, I'm an introvert and so is Brendan.  Children exhaust us, even the ones we love most.  Our solitude is the most valuable thing we have, and we cherish it above most other things and work hard to maintain it."
-Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids by Meghan Daum

"She couldn't escape the storms raging in her own skull any more than I was now able to escape mine.  I worried that if I had a baby, I'd inflict this on her.  I would be a good mother in every way I could, but I'd also be a very troubled one."
-Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids by Meghan Daum