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Famous Florence King Quotes

“Each time a mediocre singer performs, he is saying, in effect, "This is good enough for you." The audience, thrust into that familiar American mood of knowing something is wrong but not knowing what it is, unconsciously absorbs the insult and projects it back onto the mediocre performer in the form of inattention, rudeness and noise.”

EnoughFormAudienceKnowingEffectsProjectsSingersMoodFamiliarNoiseMannersInsultGood EnoughPerformersMediocrityNot KnowingMediocreThrustRudenessInattentionKnowing Something
Book:Lump It Or Leave It
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“As the only class distinction available in a democracy, the college degree has created a caste society as rigid as ancient India's. Condemning elitism and simultaneously quaking in fear that our children won't become members of the elite, we send them to college, not to learn, but to "be" college graduates, rationalizing our snobbery with the cliché that high technology has eliminated the need for the manual labor that we secretly hold in contempt.”

NeedsChildrenEducationClassTechnologyDemocracyCollegeMembersDegreesLaborIndiaOur ChildrenAncientAvailableDistinctionContemptGraduatesElitesManualsCastesCollege EducationCondemningElitismSnobberyCollege DegreeCollege GraduatesManual LaborAncient IndiaClass DistinctionHigh Technology
Book:Lump It Or Leave It
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“There are so many different kinds of people in America, with so many different boiling points, that we don't know how to fight with each other. The set piece that shapes and contains quarrels in homogeneous countries does not exist here. The Frenchman is an expert on the precise gradations of espèce de and the Italian knows exactly when to introduce the subject of his other's grave, but no American can be sure how or when another will react, so we zap each other with friendliness to neutralize potentially dangerous situations.”

PeopleKnowsKindDoeDifferentCountryAmericaFightingSituationKnow HowPiecesSubjectsDangerousShapesGravesExpertsItalianDifferent KindsIntroducingPreciseQuarrelsBoilingFriendlinessFrenchmenHomogeneousDangerous SituationsEspBoiling Point
Book:Reflections In A Jaundiced Eye
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“Hereditary monarchy offers numerous advantages for America. It is the only form of government able to unify a heterogeneous people. Thanks to centuries of dynastic marriage, the family tree of every royal house is an ethnic grab bag with something for everybody. We need this badly; America is the only country in the world where you can suffer culture shock without leaving home. We can't go on much longer depending upon disasters like Pearl Harbor and the Iranian hostage-taking to "bring us together.”

PeopleWorldNeedsCountryHomeGovernmentAbleTogetherAmericaFormSufferingCultureHouseTreeCenturyGoes OnOffersAdvantageLeavingDisasterThanksShockBagsPearlsRoyalHarborsMonarchyForms Of GovernmentIranianHostageHereditaryLeaving HomeCulture Shock
Book:Reflections In A Jaundiced Eye
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“The American woman's concept of marriage is a clearly etched picture of something uninflated on the floor. A sleeping-bag withoutair, a beanbag without beans, a padded bra without pads. To work on it, you start pumping--what the magazines call "breathing life into your marriage." Do enough of this and the marriage becomes a kind of Banquo's ghost, a quasi-living entity.”

KindEnoughSleepMarriageConceptsGhostMagazinesBreathingBagsEntityBeansPadsBrasAmerican WomanBreathing Life
Author:Florence King
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“The proliferation of support groups suggests to me that too many Americans are growing up in homes that do not contain a grandmother. A home without a grandmother is like an egg without salt.... The emotionally satisfying discussions that take place in Chronic Pain Outreach and Depression Resources are simply updated versions of the grandmotherly practice of hanging crepe. We could eliminate much of the isolation that support groups exist to fill and save the "traditional family" that everybody is so worried about if more couples took their aging parents to live with them.”

IfsHomePainParentPracticeSupportGrowing UpGrowingGroupsCoupleResourcesAgingVersionsTraditionalWorriedDiscussionIsolationGrandmotherEggsSatisfyingSaltProliferationChronic PainOutreachAging ParentsSupport GroupsCrepesTraditional Family
Author:Florence King
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“Affirmative action was designed originally for "women and other minorities" but the phrase has become just another tortured euphemism. Female conscientiousness and eagerness to please have always made women good students and natural test takers. Jews have gloried in scholarship throughout the ages, and Asians of both sexes score so high on SATs and IQ tests that they regard affirmative action as an impediment. Affirmative action really means favoritism for blacks for the sake of racial peace, but the favor is pure chimera, and so, increasingly, is the peace.”

MeanMadeAgeActionSexNaturalRaceStudentsPleasePureFemaleTestsRegardSakeJewFavorsPhrasesSatScoreMinoritiesReally MeanScholarshipAffirmative ActionAffirmativeImpedimentsEagernessEuphemismGood StudentsChimeraFavoritismConscientiousness
Author:Florence King
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“When you go apartment-hunting in the South, you encounter little old ladies who ask you if you use strong drink. In New York you encounter paranoids who wonder if you will commit suicide--not that they care; what they worry about is blood on their fresh paint, a dubious smell in the hallway, or a hole in the awning as you pass through on your way to the sidewalk. The Southerner who moves to any part of the country has problems, but the culture shock that attacks the Southerner who moves North is almost indescribable.”

IfsWayLittlesCountryUseProblemCareMovingCultureAsksStrongWonderWorryBloodNew YorkDrinkSuicideSouthPaintSmellHolesCommitEncountersShockHuntingApartmentOld LadySidewalkDubiousHallwaysIndescribableSouthernerCulture ShockStrong Drink
Book:Southern ladies and gentlemen
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“Learn to spot and avoid "writer groupies." The writer's self-sufficiency and our love for our work tend to attract insecure people who never can get enough love. They grow jealous of our work and come to regard it as a rival. These people can destroy you, so kick them out of your life or don't admit them in the first place.”

PeopleFirstsSelfEnoughGrowsRegardSpotsKicksJealousInsecureOur LoveRivalsSelf SufficiencySufficiencyGroupieEnough LoveInsecure People
Author:Florence King
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“Now the only thing I miss about sex is the cigarette afterward. Next to the first one in the morning, it's the best one of all. It tasted so good that even if I had been frigid I would have pretended otherwise just to be able to smoke it.”

IfsFirstsAbleNextLiteratureSexMorningMissingSmokeSmokingCigaretteTobaccoFrigidSmoking CigarettesSmoking CigarsSmoking A PipeTobacco SmokingFunny SmokingPipe SmokingCigarette Smoke
Book:Lump It Or Leave It
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“A woman must wait for her ovaries to die before she can get her rightful personality back. Post-menstrual is the same as pre-menstrual; I am once again what I was before the age of twelve: a female human being who knows that a month has thirty day, not twenty-five, and who can spend every one of them free of the shackles of that defect of body and mind known as femininity.”

KnowsMindHumansBodyAgeDiesWaitingHuman BeingsKnownFiveMonthsPersonalityFemaleTwentiesPostsThirtyTwelveDefectsFemininityMind And BodyTwenty FiveShacklesOvaries
Author:Florence King
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“Any discussion of the problems of being funny in America will not make sense unless we substitute the word wit for humor. Humor inspires sympathetic good-natured laughter and is favored by the healing-power gang. Wit goes for the jugular, not the jocular, and it's the opposite of football; instead of building character, it tears it down.”

CharacterProblemAmericaHealingTearsBuildingFootballInspireLaughterOppositesWitMake SenseDiscussionSubstitutesGangSympatheticBeing FunnyBuilding Character
Book:Reflections In A Jaundiced Eye
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“America is not a democracy, it's an absolute monarchy ruled by King Kid. In a nation of immigrants, the child is automatically more of an American than his parents. Americans regard children as what Mr. Hudson in Upstairs, Downstairs called betters. Aping their betters, American adults do their best to turn themselves into children. Puerility exercises droit de seigneur everywhere.”

ChildrenKidsAmericaTurnsNationsParentDemocracyKingsExerciseAdultsAbsolutesRegardImmigrantsMonarchyUpstairsAbsolute Monarchy
Book:Reflections In A Jaundiced Eye
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