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Dorothy Allison

Dorothy Allison Quotes

Writer

Dorothy Allison is an American writer known for her incisive social commentary and feminist literary works. Her writing often focuses on marginalized and overlooked groups, particularly women and the LGBTQ+ community. Born on April 11, 1949, Allison's writing career is marked by a deep exploration of issues related to gender, class, and race.

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All Writing Knows Ifs People Stories World Way Wanted Believe Heart Needs Two Can Do Class Different Fiction Lying Telling The Truth Three Three Things

Famous Dorothy Allison Quotes

“If it’s true, I have the absolute right to terrify you with it.”

Writing Truth Journalism On Writing Terrifying

Author:Dorothy Allison

“Asking “what if” and answering that question is the bedrock of what the novel can achieve. The story becomes something more than one person's perspective—it reaches as far as the novelist can imagine.”

Writing Fiction Novel

Book:Bastard Out of Carolina

Source: Bastard Out of Carolina

“Write to your fear.”

Writing On Writing

Author:Dorothy Allison

“Before I published any of my own stories, I read a great many stories by people as passionate about writing as I was, and I learned something from everyone I read -- something most important what I should not try to write.”

Book:Trash

Source: Trash

“I did not imagine anyone reading my rambling, ranting stories. I was writing for myself, trying to shape my life outside my terrors and helplessness, to make it visible and real in a tangible way, in the way other people's seemed real -- the lives I had read about in books.”

Book:Trash

Source: Trash

“I became a feminist activist propelled in part by outrage and despair, and a stubborn determination to shape a life, and create a literature, that was not a lie.”

Writing Truth Feminism Activism

Book:Skin: Talking About Sex, Class And Literature

Source: Skin: Talking About Sex, Class And Literature

“It has seemed to me that literature, as I meant it, was embattled, that it was increasingly difficult to find writing doing what I thought literature should do - which was simply to push people into changing their ideas about the world, and to go further, to encourage us in the work of changing the world, to making it more just and more truly human.”

People World Should Writing Humans Ideas Literature Difficult Changing The World

Author:Dorothy Allison

“People begin to write in order to create what they have not found and, a little bit, to give something back.”

People Giving Writing Littles Order Found Bits Little Bit

Author:Dorothy Allison

“What's the best thing you can do for your writing? Construct a boring life.”

Writing Can Do Boring Libertarian Best Things Constructs Boring Life

Author:Dorothy Allison

“If you just go get one of these little fine arts degrees or writing program degrees, it never forces you to confront your responsibility as narrator, whereas any of the social sciences make you at look the interaction between the storyteller and story.”

Ifs Writing Looks Littles Art Stories Force Social Responsibility Fine Degrees Program Interaction Storyteller Fine Arts Social Science Narrators Arts Degrees

Author:Dorothy Allison

“I do not write about nice people. I am not nice people.”

People Writing Nice Nice People

Author:Dorothy Allison

“Beauty is a hard thing. Beauty is a mean story. Beauty is slender girls who die young, fine-featured delicate creatures about whom men write poems. Beauty, my first girlfriend said to me, is that inner quality often associated with great amounts of leisure time. And I loved her for that.”

Men Writing Firsts Mean Said Hard Stories Young Dies Girl Quality Fine Amount Creatures Girlfriend Delicate Leisure Hard Things Slender Die Young Leisure Time

Book:Two Or Three Things I Know for Sure

Source: Two Or Three Things I Know for Sure

“If I could have found what I needed at thirteen, I would not have lost so much of my life chasing vindication or death. Give some child, some thirteen-year old, the hope of the remade life. Tell the truth. Write the story that you were always afraid to tell. I swear to you there is magic in it.”

Ifs Giving Writing Years Children Stories Found Lost Magic Needed If I Could Telling The Truth Swear Chasing Thirteen Vindication Thirteen Year Olds

Book:Skin: Talking About Sex, Class, and Literature

Source: Skin: Talking About Sex, Class, and Literature

“Write the story that you were always afraid to tell. I swear to you that there is magic in it, and if you show yourself naked for me, I'll be naked for you. It will be our covenant.”

Ifs Writing Stories Shows Magic Naked Swear Covenant

Book:Skin: Talking About Sex, Class, and Literature

Source: Skin: Talking About Sex, Class, and Literature

“Why write stories? To join the conversation.”

Writing Stories Conversation

Book:Trash

Source: Trash

“Fiction is a piece of truth that turns lies to meaning.”

Writing Lying Turns Fiction Pieces Allison

Book:Skin: Talking About Sex, Class, and Literature

Source: Skin: Talking About Sex, Class, and Literature

“I tell my students you have an absolute right to write about people you know and love. You do. But the kicker is you have a responsibility to make the characters large enough that you will not have sinned against them.”

People Knows Writing Enough Character Responsibility Love You Students And Love Absolutes Kickers

Author:Dorothy Allison

“I can't write what I don't believe in.”

Writing Believe I Can Don't Believe

Book:Conversations with Dorothy Allison

Source: Conversations with Dorothy Allison

“The bottom line is I'm writing to save the dead. I'm writing to save the people I have lost, some of whose bodies are still walking around.”

People Writing Stills Body Lost Lines Walking Bottom Bottom Line

Book:Conversations with Dorothy Allison

Source: Conversations with Dorothy Allison

“Writing is the only way I know to demand justice from an uncaring universe.”

Knows Way Writing Universe Justice Demand Uncaring

Author:Dorothy Allison

About the Author

Born: April 11, 1949
Known for: Writer
Quotes: 95

Related Topics

Writing Knows Ifs People Stories World Way Wanted Believe Heart Needs Two Can Do Class Different Fiction Lying Telling The Truth Three Three Things

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Two Or Three Things I Know for SureRelated source material

Skin: Talking About Sex, Class, and LiteratureRelated source material

Bastard Out of Carolina: A NovelRelated source material

TrashRelated source material

Conversations with Dorothy AllisonRelated source material

Bastard Out of CarolinaRelated source material

Skin: Talking About Sex, Class & Literature. SIGNED.Related source material

Skin: Talking About Sex, Class And LiteratureRelated source material

The Women's RoomRelated source material

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