Janine di Giovanni Quotes

I grew up learning to do more with less.

I don't live for stuff and things, and if I had to live in a cardboard box, I would put curtains on it.

Tell me what you need, and I'll tell you how to get along without it.

I can't remember exactly the first thing I wrote, but one of the stories, was about a pilot whose plane crashed on a desert island, and the only other life on the island was a brown cow with yellow spots. The cow had... to survive, had taught itself to eat and get nutriments from sand. I guess, I've always been interested in adaptability and taking whatever life hands you and running with it.

My life has always been chaotic. From the time I got dressed in the back of a deflated, flat-tired, fish-smelling station wagon for Rocky. It's always been do it yourself, kind of like paper-clip it together.

I'll dispose of my teeth as I see fit, and after they've gone, I'll get along. I started off living on gruel, and by God, I can always go back to it again.

From the time I got dressed in the back of a deflated, flat-tired, fish-smelling station wagon for Rocky. It's always been do it yourself, kind of like paper-clip it together.

One day, my bike tire broke miles from home and I found a way to fix it. That's what I learned: Even if you don't have all the tools, you can improvise.

Lots of ingenuity gets you through times with no money better than money gets you through times of no ingenuity.

We are in a very strange way going back to the mentality of the time when Americans went in covered wagons. I imagine they had a piece of cloth, and the piece of furniture they carried with them meant to be a good piece of wood, and sturdy. We're going back to that.

My mother could make something out of nothing - and everything started from scratch.

But I love the idea - whether it's in my work or where I live - exploring new frontier, and I like putting myself in strange places and trying to survive and figure things out and gather up an infrastructure. I like knowing that I could figure out a way to live anywhere.

Since I was younger I've been making the best out of nothing.

In my life I have always found ways of dealing with a situation.

Security depends not so much upon how much you have, as upon how much you can do without.

I can take hardship. I can sleep on the cold floor anytime. I can also sleep on a feather bed.

My number-one theory in life is that style is proportional to your lack of resources - the less you have, the more stylish you're likely to be.

He who knows how to be poor knows everything.

I've always been interested in how we survive and how resourceful we are as Americans.

My personal style comes from jugaad, a Hindi word meaning doing more with less.

Arrange whatever pieces come your way.

We never complained, 'We don't have this or that.' Even though we had to plant certain things and harvest them to be able to eat, we never complained.

It's amazing how resourceful you can become when you're in the middle of the ocean and there's only one way to get to the other side.

If you don't have what you need, just rock with what you've got!

My father died when I was two years old. But my mother was quite capable. She raised three children with his war pension which was peanuts. Yet we did not want for anything. We grew up with a certain parsimony, which is a nice thing. Then if life gives you more good, otherwise you get used to. I'm still thrifty.