Susan Cain Quotes

Quotes by and about Susan Cain

(Continued from her main entry on the site.)

Cain: "I'm insatiably curious about human nature."

Cain: "I'm constitutionally opposed to following rules for their own sake."

Cain: "[When I started writing] I was exploring every genre [in my writings.]"

Cain: "You dole out these utterances, and you don't really know which ones will take."

[Asked why she wrote her book:]
Cain: "For the same reason that Betty Friedan published 'The Feminine Mystique' in 1963. Introverts are to extroverts what women were to men at that time - second-class citizens with gigantic amounts of untapped talent."

[On attending a gathering for Highly Sensitive People:]
Cain: "[The atmosphere is so hushed that the mood threatens to] devolve into ... loneliness. ... I begin thinking someone should be cracking jokes, stirring things up, handing out rum-and-Cokes. Shouldn't they? The truth is, as much as I crave breathing room for sensitive types I enjoy hail-fellows-well-met, too ... I miss [sociable people] this weekend. I'm starting to speak so softly that I feel like I'm putting myself to sleep. I wonder if deep down the others feel this way, too."

Cain: "The essence of café culture is actually freedom. ... You're free to come and go; you're free to interact with whomever you want. You're free to not interact. ... And you can leave whenever you want."