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Marge Piercy

Marge Piercy Quotes

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Famous Marge Piercy Quotes

“I will choose what enters me, what becomes flesh of my flesh. Without choice, no politics, no ethics lives. I am not your cornfield, not your uranium mine, not your calf for fattening, not your cow for milking. You may not use me as your factory. Priests and legislators do not hold shares in my womb or my mind. If I give it to you, I want it back. My life is a non-negotiable demand.”

IfsWantGivingMindMayUseLife IsChoicesShareMinesDemandEthicsFleshPriestsFactoriesCowsWombLegislatorsUsing MeCalvesUraniumFattening
Author:Marge Piercy
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“We admire predators - panthers, lions, tigers, even wolves. Maybe to be naturally thoughtful and hesitant to use violence is to be somehow second rate. To be in the middle of the social food chain. Especially if you're a man. This society thinks real men are violent.”

IfsThinkingMenRealUseSocialViolenceMiddleRateViolentAdmireChainsThoughtfulLionsTigersPredatorReal MenThis SocietySecond RateFood ChainHesitantPanthers
Book:The Longings of Women: A Novel
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“Now that I am in my forties, she [my mother] tells me I'm beautiful; now that I am in my forties, she sends me presents and we have the long, personal and even remarkably honest phone calls I always wanted so intensely I forbade myself to imagine them. How strange. Perhaps Shaw was correct and if we lived to be several hundred years old, we would finally work it all out. I am deeply grateful. With my poems, I finally won even my mother. The longest wooing of my life.”

IfsYearsLongWantedBeautifulMotherImagineHonestStrangeHundredGratefulPhonesFortyWorking ItPhone CallsWooing
Book:Braided Lives: A Novel
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“Listening is terribly important if you want to understand anything about people. You listen to what they say and how they say it, what they share and what they are reticent about, what they tell truthfully and what they lie about, what they hope for and what they fear, what they are proud of, what they are ashamed of. If you don't pay attention to other people, how can you understand their choices through time and how their stories come out?”

PeopleIfsWantImportantStoriesLyingChoicesPayAttentionShareListeningProudPay AttentionAshamedRough Times
Author:Marge Piercy
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“Attention is love, what we must give children, mothers, fathers, pets, our friends, the news, the woes of others. What we want to change we curse and then pick up a tool. Bless whatever you can with eyes and hands and tongue. If you can't bless it, get ready to make it new.”

IfsWantGivingChildrenHandsEyeMotherFatherAttentionReadyNewsPicksToolsTongueCursePetBlessWoe
Book:The Art of Blessing the Day: Poems with a Jewish Theme
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