Quote of the Day: Judith Viorst on Marriage

Long before her wit became shorthand for modern family life, Judith Viorst built a career on telling the truth with a smile, writing poems, children’s classics, and memoirs that land because they’re uncomfortably accurate. That accuracy shows up in her mischievous confession: “I could be such a wonderful wife to another wife's husband.”

It’s funny because it’s familiar. From the outside, other people’s relationships look clean, no laundry piles, no old arguments, no accumulated disappointments. In that imaginary marriage, you get all the charm and none of the maintenance. Viorst is pointing at the mind’s favorite shortcut: we compare our behind-the-scenes with someone else’s highlight reel, then assume we’d perform better in their story.

Use the line as a diagnostic. Any time you catch yourself thinking, “If only I had their partner/their job/their life,” ask what you’re really craving: appreciation, novelty, ease, or a chance to be seen at your best. Then reclaim your agency. Instead of fantasizing about a different stage, bring your best self to the one you’re on, through one honest conversation, one repaired expectation, one small act of love that doesn’t require perfect conditions.

Judith Viorst has spent decades translating everyday emotional chaos into clear, compassionate language, earning cross-generational devotion through books like Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day and her sharp, humane reflections on growing up and growing older.

Today, do a “fantasy-to-fact” swap: write down one idealized thought you’ve had about someone else’s relationship, then list the three unglamorous needs every partnership shares, time, forgiveness, and attention, and meet just one of those needs in your own life before sunset. May your real life become the one that looks green from the outside.