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 Read Quote
Not being locked into one set of feelings, which you run the risk of mistaking for the truth, you have greater and more intense access to all feeling states, including those you would never choose to act out. Mary Gaitskill Read Quote
One hot summer night in San Francisco, roughly 10 years ago, I was sitting in a crowded Pacific Heights restaurant when Alice Adams walked in with a man. She was about 60 at the time, and she was wearing a skirt that fell an inch or so above her knees and flat heels without stockings. Mary Gaitskill Read Quote
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 Read Quote
My first and strongest memories about perfume come from childhood, from my mother, and they are a complex blend of her private and public selves. Mary Gaitskill Read Quote
My parents had met in high school and married right after my father came back from World War II. They honeymooned in Paris and returned to that city when my father, in college on the G.I. Bill, was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship. Mary Gaitskill Read Quote
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 Read Quote
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 Read Quote
Having watched television, I would kind of play the role or picture myself on a television show or something like that. That’s maybe always been true of a certain type of kid, even before television maybe, but I think it’s been amplified to an insane level. Mary Gaitskill Read Quote
When looking out the window and watching the water becomes a drama, then literally everything is a drama. Mary Gaitskill Read Quote
