“People do want to be young and beautiful. When they meet in the street, male or female, if they're getting older they look at each other's face a little ashamed. It's clear they want to say, Excuse me, I didn't mean to draw attention to mortality and gravity all at once. I didn't want to remind you, my dear friend, of our coming eviction, first from liveliness, then from life. To which, most of the time, the friend's eyes will courteously reply, My dear, it's nothing at all. I hardly noticed.” LifeAgeDeathFriendshipBeauty Book:A Grace Paley Reader: Stories, Essays, and Poetry Source: A Grace Paley Reader: Stories, Essays, and Poetry
“Still, it is like a long hopeless homesickness my missing those young days. To me, they're like my own place that I have gone away from forever, and I have lived all the time since among great pleasures but in a foreign town. Well, O.K. Farewell, certain years.” AgeYouthAgingNostalgia Book:Enormous Changes at the Last Minute: Stories Source: Enormous Changes at the Last Minute: Stories
“Old age is another country, a place of strangeness, sometimes, and dislocation. There's a lot to be done in this country, and a great deal of pleasure there. There are friends, some of whom are sick and needful of you, as you will be of them someday. The world itself is very beautiful. It's a place where you have a lot to do. But you have to do it knowing that sometimes you will be afraid of this new country.” WorldCountrySometimesDoneAgeBeautifulPleasureDealsKnowingSickOld AgeSomedayVery BeautifulStrangenessDislocation Author:Grace Paley
“Old age is not a good thing. It can be really hard, and those of us who have it a little easier should keep in mind that there are hundreds of thousands of people who are not as well off.” PeopleShouldMindWellsLittlesHardAgeEasierGood ThingsOld Age Author:Grace Paley
“I'm seventy-five now. I also have the peculiar luck of having a sister and brother who are fourteen and sixteen years older than me. Their health is not good. It couldn't be at that age. But their spirits are. Both my brother and my sister are an example to me.” YearsAgeSpiritFiveExampleBrotherLuckMy BrotherPeculiarMy SisterBrothers And SistersSeventiesSixteenFourteen Author:Grace Paley
