I remember back in the ’90s, I used to feel criticized by women for not having children. Like there must be something wrong with me. Mary Gaitskill Read Quote
If anything is scary about my writing, it’s that it’s the product of a very particular vision and doesn’t reference common speech that heavily. By ‘common speech,’ I don’t mean language as much as an agreed-on way of seeing, or a shorthand. Mary Gaitskill Read Quote
I think that with the proliferation of writing programs, people tend to forget that you also have to get used to working alone, and you have to be your own support. Mary Gaitskill Read Quote
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 Read Quote
The hard truth is that there are people who believe they’re writers and work hard at it and are sincere about it, but they don’t make it. You have to be prepared for that possibility. Mary Gaitskill Read Quote
When I was writing ‘Bad Behavior,’ I was very, very quiet. I would just sit there and listen to people. And if I was out in public, I was usually quiet, and people tended to assume I was stupid because I was a young, pretty girl who’s quiet. Mary Gaitskill Read Quote
I believe that the truest parts of people can be buried, and for many different reasons. Mary Gaitskill Read Quote
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 Read Quote
