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Mary Gaitskill Quotes
Mary Gaitskill Quotes
Mary Gaitskill
American
Novelist
Born:
Nov 11
,
1954
Me
People
Sometimes
Think
Writing
You
Related authors:
Elie Wiesel
Ernest Hemingway
H. P. Lovecraft
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John Updike
Leo Rosten
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Richard Bach
What is faithfulness, anyway? Can you be unfaithful to your own feelings and faithful to someone else? Is it faithful to lie in bed night after night with someone you love but no longer desire while ardently dreaming of someone else?
Mary Gaitskill
Love
You
Lie
Feelings
Faithful
Own
Else
Dreaming
Someone
Ardently
Longer
Faithfulness
Bed
Unfaithful
After
Anyway
While
Your
Desire
Night
The appeal of perfume is that it is at once ephemeral and empowering. It creates a shimmering invisible armor that lingers in a room long after its wearer has gone and infuses our imagination with a subtle power, hinting at a hidden identity.
Mary Gaitskill
Long
Power
Gone
Imagination
Our
Once
Hidden
Invisible
Perfume
Armor
Identity
Empowering
Lingers
After
Subtle
Room
Ephemeral
Creates
Appeal
It's scary to me to watch the world around us get less and less physical while in the imaginary world of pop culture, aggressive impulses and fear reactions are floridly, furiously stoked and indulged.
Mary Gaitskill
Me
Culture
World
Fear
Aggressive
Physical
Scary
Reactions
Around
Get
Stoked
Impulses
While
Us
Pop
Pop Culture
Less
Watch
Imaginary
Imaginary World
A sad person who is so involved with his sadness that he mistakes it for reality will have a hard time seeing himself as anything but sad. For him, the sadness is not a feeling that he experiences - it is him.
Mary Gaitskill
Sad
Time
Reality
Sadness
Will
Feeling
Mistakes
Seeing
He
Involved
Him
Himself
His
Person
Experiences
Anything
Hard
Who
Hard Time
Stories mimic life like certain insects mimic leaves and twigs.
Mary Gaitskill
Life
Insects
Mimic
Like
Leaves
Stories
Certain
Twig
Writing requires an intense inner focus, and sometimes you need to express outward, physically or socially.
Mary Gaitskill
You
Writing
Sometimes
Focus
Physically
Outward
Intense
Requires
Express
Socially
Inner
Need
Stories are the rich, unseen underlayer of the most ordinary moments.
Mary Gaitskill
Rich
Unseen
Most
Stories
Ordinary
Moments
Anne Frank's diary made a very big impression on me at age 12 or so.
Mary Gaitskill
Me
Age
Made
Big
Frank
Anne
Diary
Impression
Very
Three writers together would be a nightmare of obstreperous self-consciousness.
Mary Gaitskill
Together
Three
Would
Would-Be
Writers
Self-Consciousness
Nightmare
I wanted to communicate and connect. I simply didn't seem able to do it.
Mary Gaitskill
Communicate
Able
Seem
Simply
Wanted
Connect
People say that if you talk too much about sex, you take away the mystery. I say, if you're somebody who likes to talk, talk all you want - it's not listening. You will never take away the mystery.
Mary Gaitskill
You
People
Listening
Too Much
Will
Sex
Somebody
Too
Say
People Say
About
Mystery
Take
Never
Never Take
Talk
Likes
Want
Much
Who
Away
I don't think that the Internet creates feelings that aren't there, nor does it provide an outlet. On the contrary, what I have thought about things like computer games - what has disturbed me about them - is that they appear to stimulate feelings of aggression without providing any physical release.
Mary Gaitskill
Me
Internet
Thought
Feelings
Think
On The Contrary
Release
Physical
Disturbed
About
Outlet
Computer
Like
Without
Does
Stimulate
Nor
Provide
Providing
Contrary
Any
Them
Creates
Aggression
Games
Appear
Things
Something like riding a horse - which I've recently started doing - requires courage, especially for me, as I started out being actually scared of horses.
Mary Gaitskill
Me
Courage
Out
Scared
Something
Horse
Horses
Like
Doing
Being
Which
Requires
Riding
Actually
Started
Recently
I don't know if I can say exactly what I seek in books, but one of them would be to deepen and expand my understanding of the world.
Mary Gaitskill
World
Understanding
Books
Say
Would
Would-Be
Exactly
Exactly What
Seek
Know
Expand
Them
Deepen
When looking out the window and watching the water becomes a drama, then literally everything is a drama.
Mary Gaitskill
Water
Looking
Drama
Everything
Out
Window
Becomes
Literally
Then
Watching
There is a sense in which we have - like, I go in to teach a class; I may be somewhat different than I would be talking to you, although it's related because it's public. I'm very different with my roommate or my lover or my cats. But I don't know if that means you're acting, really, if you're being truthful.
Mary Gaitskill
You
Class
Cats
Sense
Lover
Related
Would
Would-Be
Somewhat
Like
Know
Talking
Although
Because
Go
Very
Truthful
Than
May
Being
Different
Which
Public
Really
Means
Acting
Teach
Sometimes I decide I don't want to write because it isn't the thing for me to be doing right then, and I go do something else.
Mary Gaitskill
Me
Sometimes
Else
Something
Something Else
Write
Because
Doing
Go
Want
Decide
Then
Right
Thing
I think it actually started in my late thirties. I started changing psychologically, and it was difficult to translate that into my writing.
Mary Gaitskill
Writing
Difficult
Think
Thirties
Changing
Late
Psychologically
Translate
Actually
Started
Somebody once said to me, 'If you want to be understood, don't write fiction.'
Mary Gaitskill
Me
You
Somebody
Once
Write
Said
Understood
Want
Fiction
I feel I'm often misunderstood by critics. People project a lot or exaggerate the subjective fragility simply because it's frightening to them.
Mary Gaitskill
People
Project
Critics
Exaggerate
Simply
Feel
Because
Misunderstood
Subjective
Lot
Frightening
Often
Them
Fragility
It's true that your environment influences how you write.
Mary Gaitskill
You
Write
Environment
True
How
Influences
Your
I didn't like horses when I was a kid.
Mary Gaitskill
Kid
Horses
Like
The first person to blow up my fashion consciousness was a 14-year-old girl named Sandrine. She was the most beautiful human I had ever seen.
Mary Gaitskill
Beautiful
Fashion
Most Beautiful
Girl
Seen
First
Had
Named
Most
She
First-Person
Up
Person
Blow
Human
Ever
Consciousness
Between my hatred of mall shopping and my mother's firm ideas about how a girl should dress, my style choices were pretty unenthusiastic: plaid skirts or whatever empire-waisted thingamabob was on sale at Sears.
Mary Gaitskill
Shopping
Mother
Girl
Hatred
Style
Whatever
Dress
Pretty
About
Firm
Between
Ideas
How
Were
Sale
Mall
Choices
Should
Skirts
The two basic social identities were Normal and Greaser; although a few sophisticated girls wore peace signs, hippies didn't exist, and while a seminal punk band, Iggy and the Stooges, was playing in nearby Ann Arbor, punk didn't exist yet, either.
Mary Gaitskill
Peace
Punk
Signs
Girl
Band
Few
Sophisticated
Identities
Although
Hippies
Were
Exist
Normal
Stooges
Either
While
Social
Wore
Iggy
Nearby
Basic
Playing
Two
Sometimes I write from the point of view of characters whom I would dislike as people, not as a perverse exercise, but because this cracks the story open and makes me see it in a way I would not see it naturally.
Mary Gaitskill
Me
People
Sometimes
Way
Characters
Would
See
Point
Point Of View
Write
Open
Because
Exercise
Makes
Cracks
Story
Dislike
View
Perverse
Naturally
Whom
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